| Really?
Tazers: Limited range of only 20-30 feet. Probes may be defeated by heavy clothing. One-shot affair.
Stunguns: Require the user to be at contact range with an opponent who may be larger, stronger, or armed. This places the person defending their life at a disadvantage.
Pepper-spray: Very limited range, frequently stored in a container which can easily be fired in reverse by accident. Furthermore, people can build up immunity to the spray. Furthermore -yet-, it does not instantly incapacitate the attacker and leaves him able to strike back, if only in blind fury.
Sticks: Requires considerable strength to use well, very limited range.
Martial-arts: Takes years to become proficient and requires the defender to be in actual physical contact with the attacker.
Firearms: Allow the user to strike an incapacitating blow from a safe distance, multiple-use in case of more than one attacker or need for a follow-up on a miss, cannot be stopped by clothing (vests aside, obviously), and have no batteries to go dead or cylinder of compressed gas to get a leak. The batteries on my Makarov can't go dead because it doesn't have any, and the ammo will still go "bang" if I leave it in a drawer for the next half-century.
Less-Lethal weapons most certainly do not have "great" stopping power in a life-threatening situation. The sole exception to this appears to be the newer EMD-type Tazers, which have been strongly alleged to be responsible for over 140 deaths (almost all in Police custody). It remains, however, a one-shot weapon with limited range and therefore is unsuitable for serious consideration as a primary civilian self-defense tool. |