What about pepper spray? Or a taser?

Why is it that the 90 pound woman needs a gun to protect herself, instead of something that can disable her attacker? Something that will not accidentally discharge and harm herself, or be found by her children and possibly cause their death ( yes, I know that tasers and pepper spray could conceivably cause death in a small child, but there'd probably be more time to get little Davey to the hospital after he accidentally tases himself than if he shot himself )?

What about the fact that a taser or pepper spray ( or any other non-lethal means of defense ) probably has a much smaller chance of accidentally killing someone who wasn't the intended target? Let's be honest, if a 90 pound woman is being attacked by a 200 pound man, she probably isn't in the proper state of mind to ensure she won't injure someone else if her shots don't hit her intended target.

On a lighter side note, every time I read "200 pound man", I'm imagining some overweight fellow with sausage fingers instead of some muscled gang hooligan ( my imagination seems to be inflating him to be 400 pounds ).

Yes, but is that something the something you wanted to hit? Will someone who's being stared down by a criminal know not to pull the trigger because there are innocent people behind that criminal? How much time and training does someone need to be able to hit their target reliably when they're hopped up on adrenaline and fear?

Also, I have no idea how true this is, but I remember an episode of Criminal Minds where a character stated they carried a knife instead of a gun because inside ten feet ( I think that was the range ), he could pull a knife and throw it ( accurately, mind ) before someone else could get a gun out of their holster. Now of course, I don't know how that holds up to real life -- the character in question was a police officer on a Native Reserve who had been training to throw knives for a fairly long while, and I don't really know if an untrained user would be any more accurate with a thrown knife than a gun.

The thing is, just because guns can be accurate, doesn't mean they will be -- especially in the hands of someone who may not be fully trained in their use, but is also having to fire their weapon in a stressful situation that may have never been in before.

There is no guarantee that a gun is more accurate than any other weapon.

If the bear is biting down on your leg, I doubt shooting it in the head will help much. That line from Shawshank Redemption comes to mind:

Plus there's also that thing where having the proper state of mind to grab your gun, point it at the bear's head and pull the trigger while it's doing it's best to detach your leg from the rest of your torso.

At least we on the West Coast can call in the winter and brag about our sunshine =D

Just out of curiosity, how many fingers does Tom have?

Not sure what it's like on the island, but in Vancouver, our beaches are only usable ( due to too much cold/wind/rain or just not enough heat ) most of the year, so stuff moving around isn't a problem.

Then again, the opposite of this technology ( warming the sand ) might be useful for people who frequent Wreck Beach