Best home defense gun for an apartment

[allenr]

Bear spray is actually less potent than pepper spray. Bear spray is usually 1-2% OC concentration.... Pepper spray is 10% or higher. A bear might be bigger, but bear spray is meant to scare the bear off, not to incapacitate it.

I would stick with the Glock and get some bear spray. Sprayed a charging black bear two years ago, and it really turned an ran when it got a dose of it. I have my pistol and bear spray on the night table.

Specs from Mace.com

Bear spray. 2% concentration and up to 35 feet.

Pepper Gel Spray. 1.4 % concentration and range up to 18 feet.

Just finished more research into the above debate. It appears that many websites are stating that pepper spray has a 10% concentration. That is wrong. I think they are getting that figure from the SDS (safety data sheet) spec. That 10% figure is not the concentration of oleocapsicum. It is the percentage capsicum as part of the total volume of the container. For example mace.com lists a SDS of 10% for its pepper spray. That means the other ingredients amount to 90% of the contents.

A careful read of style Mace.com specs show the concentration of capsicum to be 1.4% for personal defense pepper spray and 2% for bear repelling pepper spray. Indeed the bear spray is intended to drive a bear off. That is because no one wants the bear to be seriously affected. Deterred is the goal. If harm was the goal the % would be much greater.

Personal defense pepper spray is intended to incapacitate a person. Any concentration of capsicum between one and two,percent will do that. Most manufacturers settle on a % between 1 and 2 %.

Remember we are talking about incapacitating a person at 1.4 % with Mace. Therefore 2% is even more effective. The difference between a bear's and a human's tolerance of any given % of capsicum is appreciable. To incapacitate a bear might take as much as 10% concentration. That might cause death in a person by destroying lung tissue.

I got the above info from a series of research papers by state governments into effective strengths.

[Berncly]

With regard to pepper spray specifically (not mace or bear spray), the number that actually matters is the Scoville Heat Units (SHU), not the percentages of this or that.
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.ph...54#post3422554

[JenniferG]

I remember a story about WWI when the Germans used chemical weapons. They fired the chemical weapons at the British lines but the wind blew the chemicals back into their own trenches killing or incapacitating many of their own men. I would think that in an apartment sized room any type of chemical agent would be just as effective on the defender as it would be on the assailant. I can pretty much attest to the fact that mace spray will debilitate or at least have the same effect on everyone in a apartment size room once it is sprayed. Pepper spray, I can't attest to that but it only makes sense it would work the same way.

[allenr]

I remember a story about WWI when the Germans used chemical weapons. They fired the chemical weapons at the British lines but the wind blew the chemicals back into their own trenches killing or incapacitating many of their own men. I would think that in an apartment sized room any type of chemical agent would be just as effective on the defender as it would be on the assailant. I can pretty much attest to the fact that mace spray will debilitate or at least have the same effect on everyone in a apartment size room once it is sprayed. Pepper spray, I can't attest to that but it only makes sense it would work the same way.

That was a very informative link. Thanks for posting it.

[jthrelf]

I'd probably stick with the Glock 41, which seems very well suited to HD . And if you're set on a long gun, the 930 SPX with #1 Buck seems like a good idea.

[Tim Ault]

As has been stated , all bullets and pellets will go through stud and drywall constructed walls easily don't really matter what caliber of gauge of weapon Even a 410 with bird shot will at the typical across the room distances . Are the walls between the apartments a different construction ? Probably not probably just as more insulation or sound deadening materials . IMO pick a weapon your confident and competent in and know what directions are and aren't safe shoot . But if it comes down to it do whatever it takes to save the life of you and yours