Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Actually, though this is a negative review of the product--as sold by this vendor--I'm a big fan of the Tippmann TiPX pistol for self defense. What I'm giving the negative review on is this seller's taking $250 worth of product, giving it a new snazzy name that they made up, and selling it for a hundred or more dollars than what a buyer can get the thing for buying the individual components on their own. My setup: Tippmann TIPX pistol, with included spare magazine, retail about $200 but I got it from Academy Sports on sale for $179. Add to that Rap4 Peppershot, tube of ten rounds of PAVA (synthetic capsicum and much more potent than any natural extract) for $35. So you buy those two items and you're under $250 and have something proven and reliable for a lot less than this seller with their "Salt Self Defense" package. Hell, you could add in another 10 rounds of PAVA for just another $35, Or, if you're feeling especially brave you can order RAP4's 10X PAVA rounds which are exactly what they sound like, ten times as potent, and for the same price as the 1X rounds. Given the fact that using the 10X rounds inside a room or home or any other enclosed structure is going to result in striking the defender and assailant both with temporary blindness and excruciating agony, you might want to load your first mag with the standard rounds and save the monsters for a reload if that should prove necessary. At any rate, this seller is not providing you with anything you can't buy on your own, without their help, and for a greatly reduced price compared to what they're asking for. The only reason they get two stars instead of one for their overpriced offering is because the combination of a TiPX with high-quality pepper balls is a pretty effective nonlethal self-defense package. Unfortunately, I have no idea of who they're sourcing their pepper balls from, so I'd strongly recommend you get a proven product, tested by military and police agencies and deployed by them, from RAP4. Since the original Pepperball people will only sell their product to military, police, and security companies your only real source for a good and tested product is from the RAP4 people. Or, believe it or not,from Walmart occasionally. Walmart has .68 pepperballs for sale in blister-packs of 7 each, which I've actually had a friend shoot me in the chest with a couple. I spent the next thirty minutes moaning in pain and utterly helpless, with mucus running from both my eyes and nose. I can vouch for their effectiveness. However, availability at Walmart is very much hit and miss and when available they are usually found in the hunting/sporting goods section around either the airgun section, the paintball products (if they have them), or gun cleaning kits. The only mail order available pepperballs I'm familiar with which are readily available are the aforementioned RAP4 product. There are a few people selling powdered "ghost pepper" (supposedly the hottest pepper available) paintballs on eBay and elsewhere, but I can guarantee you they are nowhere near the potency of projectiles loaded with PAVA. Please note that I am a former police officer, and I know what it's like to have to shoot someone with a real gun, and it's something I never want to do again if I can help it. What I like about non-lethal weapons is that you can shoot first, and apologize later if necessary. That takes away a source of hesitation that might give an attacker an edge if the defender is faced with the choice of actually killing someone, maybe by mistake. Tasers are by far the most effective non-lethal weapon technology available but given how stingy Taser is about actually selling their technology to non-military or non-police private purchasers, the best easily-available nonlethal technology available to most people are paintball guns loaded with pepper balls, or other pepper-projecting devices like the Kimber Pepperblaster. The reason I chose the Tippmann weapon over other devices like the Tiberius paintball gun, or the ten-shot pistol sold by RAP4 is because the Tippmann product has a feature that elevates it far over the other weapons. The CO2 capsule stored in the Tippmann sits in its chamber, unpunctured and sealed, until the first time that the shooter pulls the trigger with the safety off. That first trigger pull punctures the CO2 cartridge, and the second trigger pull and the rest actually shoot balls out of the gun. Which gives the Tippmann great shelf life compared to the other pistols which puncture the cartridge upon loading it into the gun. You'll never have to worry about pulling the trigger at some later time, only to have nothing happen because all the CO2 leaked out of the cartridge while the gun sat in a drawer or glove compartment. Just so long as you can remember to pull the trigger twice the first time you need to use it, you'll be fine. I keep mine with me almost everywhere, riding in my glove compartment in my car, or sitting on my bedside table at home. I have years of genuine police experience in some pretty horrible places, and I am confident that a few PAVA rounds delivered into someone's center-mass, or directly to the face if they're close enough, will disable an burglar or attacker well enough that I can kick him half to death before the police show up. Hey, he'd be getting off light. In the same situation I could justifibly blast him to kingdom come with a shotgun, so it's to his benefit that I choose instead to torment him with a little pepper hot sauce (and the tip of a steel-toed boot) instead.