My neighbors were robbed the other day. Their door is literally less than 10cm away from mine. I could hear their metal security gate being prised open (!), and I could hear the thieves carrying off their newfound assets. What the hell could I do? Luckily the neighbors were in their bedroom with the door locked. So yeah, they pretty much waited patiently while their flat was being ransacked by a total stranger (strangers?). Something like this is enough to make a person quite paranoid.

I've installed a new bolt/chain lock thingy on my wooden door, which should give them a bit of extra trouble if/when they do try to break in here, but what the hell do I do if they're inside and the police are late (as they usually are)? I have an open-plan flat so there's no bedroom to hide in, and I have stuff in excess of R20 000 just lying around (that's a lot of money for a student like me). So this got me thinking about a no mess, no fuss, legal self defense system. Pepper-spray? Nope. Taser Gun? Only one shot...what if there's more than one of them? CO2 pistol? Will a .177 caliber lead ball be enough to scare them off, or will it only infuriate them? So then I stumbled upon this...

First off, I'd be scared shitless if someone was pointing that thing at me. From pepperammo.com:

Peppergun is a South-African developed airgun that shoots PepperAmmo. PepperGun works on the same principal as a paintball gun, but with distinct differences and advantages.

PepperAmmo in turn is a projectile, slightly larger than a paintball, but made from different materials. We fill a plastic ball with a pepper mix (capsaicin-the burning component of chillies). This is in the form of a dry powder. When you need to defend yourself against a human or animal, you would shoot it with this pepper ammo. The plastic ball breaks on impact, releasing a painful, super-irritant powder. This powder creates a dust cloud around the suspect, leaving him temporarily blind, in shock and very uncomfortable. The suspect could now be easily apprehended as it takes him a couple of minutes (3 to 5) to recover.

The result is similar to that when using pepper spray, that has been around for some time. The main advantage is that you deliver this pepper over a distance (from point blank to approx. 40 to 50m), meaning that you don't have to be close-up to the assailant in order for your self-defense tactic to be effective.

The best of all – NO LICENCE REQUIRED.

Hellz yeah.

There are lots of places selling complete kits for about R2000. This will get you the gun, 20 pepper balls, 20 practice balls, and ten CO2 canisters. Not too bad. Now, if I can find a review of this thing somewhere...I'll know whether to dosh out on it or not.