For all students at Universities and Colleges around the country, security is a hot topic. Unfortunately, there are many violent incidents that occur all too frequently. As parents, we want to make sure our college age children are safe from these violent elements. The real question is how to effectively protect our children.

There are several self-defense choices available. Most involve some kind of lethal force such as handguns, knives, etc. These are often times not practical, dangerous to use or cause permanent harm. In addition, there are legal issues to be concerned about as well.

One of the best forms of non-lethal self defense is pepper spray. Often called, OC spray, it is a non-lethal self defense tool that can disable an attacker for up to 45 minutes and allow the victim to extricate themselves from a violent or potentially violent situation. It causes no permanent harm to the assailant.

One may ask, if I wanted to buy pepper spray, which one is the best for college students?

The answer is a simple one – keychain pepper spray. This product is a must and while this product has gotten more mainstream over the past 5 years at college campuses nationwide, we cannot understand why every student does not carry one.

Inexpensive at about $10-13 depending on the brand and features, this non-lethal self defense tool is compact, powerful and most importantly easily accessible. The average pepper spray keychain contains between 15-25 half second bursts and has a target stream of between 8-12 feet. It is ideal for students that walk to/from class on campus and provides extra protection on late night walks, the time which is most dangerous for women to walk alone. It has proven to be an effective deterrent to campus crime. The most popular brands are SABRE RED and Fox Labs.