If your answer to either question is yes, can you please tell me a bit about the circumstances? I have in mind weapons such as pepper spray or stun guns, which are designed specifically to be nondeadly defensive weapons, and I'm looking for uses by people other than police officers and security guards. And I'm looking for a whole range of details. In particular:

(1) Why do you use them instead of guns? Is it because it's illegal for you to carry or possess a gun (e.g., because you live in a jurisdiction in which licenses to carry are unavailable, or because you are under 21 and carry licenses are only available to people 21 and above, or because you have some criminal conviction that bars possession of a gun)? Or do you prefer nonlethal weapons, and, if so, exactly why? (I can guess why people might, but I'd like to hear your own views.)

(2) Have you had any incidents in which you've used such weapons for self-defense? How did they happen? How happy were you with the defensive weapon's effectiveness?

Please post your answers, or, if you'd rather just e-mail me, please do so, at volokh at law.ucla.edu.

I realize, by the way, that these weapons can in principle be deadly, but so can fists. I call the weapons nondeadly because only a tiny fraction of attacks with them -- even ones that connect -- lead to death.