Legalise Extendable Batons and Pepper Spray for personal defense

It has come to my attention that we have an issue with violent crimes and muggings happening to everyone. The truth is, no matter how many police we acquire and no many how many police circulate our community at any given time, crimes such as muggings, assault and rape will still be prevalent. Our police are some of the finest in the world and I myself respect and thank them for doing their job in keeping Australia safe.

However, as mentioned early, the police cannot be just everywhere at once which comes to my attention that there are situations where we must defend ourselves. However, as recommended by many self defense experts we should avoid these situations in the first place. But, there are just some situations which we just have to defend ourselves (e.g. random assault from gang members). In these situations, we normally want to get out of these situations of quickly as possible. However the aggressor might be armed with an object such as a knife, metal bar, sock filled with rocks, etc.

As law abiding citizens of Australia, we should have access to self defense purpose built force multipliers such suggested, pepper spray and extendable batons. I do not regard these items as "weapons", even though technically they are. However, they are built to temporary disable an aggressor, so that the situation can be controlled. And unlike a gun or a knife, with proper usage they can be effective in controlling a situation. And also unlike a gun, these items are very in-effective in as a weapon for a massacre.

Police, security and good civilians around the world use these items to control situations of forced felony. A citizen could use these items to get out of a situation as quickly as possible, or call for help. Also, it can help to avoid them to be another victim of a violent crime/robbery.

The police are available at all times to protect us, however the victim will always be the first line of defense. Remember, these are situations which seconds count, which the police will arrive in minutes to investigate the crime. Also, it would be hard to use a phone in a situation such as a mugging or robbery.

This is not about paranoia or providing criminals/gangs weapons (Which they would already have access to due to black markets), but it is about preparation of such situation to occur.

The regulation of pepper spray could be similar to how Western Australia regulates pepper spray, however, extendable batons could be regulated as suggested....

* Sales of Extendable Baton is prohibited to those under 16 years of age (16 to 24 year olds are the most vulnerable to assault)
* A police/background check is required before the sale
* The following should be prohibited from obtaining one...
- Criminals
- The mentally unstable
- People who have connections with known gangs
- people with history of alcoholism
- people with history of domestic violence
* A TAFE training course should be done in order to obtain a license to carry a baton.
* There should be no limit in the size of the baton.
* Concealed carry should be an option.

==Update (18/10/09)==
The petition is now for EVERYONE Australia wide.