Should a woman use her purse as a self defense weapon..?

I help teach self-defense skills for women and there are several things I'm concerned about with your question. 1. If you're always feeling exposed and defenseless, you have more issues than personal safety.

Try taking classes or courses in self-confidence. That way you'll learn to realize not every single moment is a threat on your life. You'll also appear more confident and comfortable and people that attack targets of opportunity stay away from confident, comfortable people.

If you really believe you can be attacked at any minute you should move. 2. The last thing you want to do if there's a problem is attack the attacker.

You need to focus on survival and escape. Call attention to yourself and the attacker. Get away from the situation.

Escape, evade, and avoid are the best things you can do. Generally speaking, if you actively counterattack someone who's coming after you, you won't live. They're either strung out on drugs ore completely satisfied they'll win.

They'll get angry if you try kicking. That's bad news. 3.

Guns, knives, and chemical weapons like pepper spray are also bad ideas. They can be used against you and you need to train extensively and regularly to be capable of using them in a real stressful situation. Pepper spray and mace are 'area weapons' which means if you use them, you WILL get pepper spray on you.

End of story. And it hurts. It gets everyone in an area so don't use it.

4. Survival is based on situational awareness. Know what's going on around you by paying attention.

Don't assume everyone is aiming at killing and raping and robbing you. A massive percentage (well over 70%) of rapes occur between people who know each other. Alcohol is almost always a factor.

A stranger showing up and raping you on a random street is almost never going to happen. The same goes with home invasion and robbery. 90% of home invasions are by people who have been in your house or see it regularly.

Those are the folks you need to worry about. Stay with people when you go out. Pay attention to what's going on.

Don't wear IPods or hoodies that block your vision or keep you from hearing things. That's all you need to survive. Good luck!

Pepper spray and tazers(that give electric shocks) can be bought online. You need things that are handy and can be used quickly when you need it. Always keep your cell phone with you.

In worst case, you can call police or someone quick. You can put their number on speed dial. Practice fighting and defending yourself with your girl friends so you will be better prepared for an attack.

Even if you have none of these things, you can use your nails to hurt them. You can bite them with your teeths. You can beat them with your shoes.

Best way is to practice these scenarios so you will know how to react.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.