NYC Pepper Spray Laws

NYC Pepper Spray Laws: What’s Legal and What Gets You Arrested

Your allowed to defend yourself in New York City. But not too effectively. Pepper spray is legal. Tasers arent. Knives over four inches arent. The state has decided exactly how much pain your permitted to inflict on someone whos attacking you – and theyve drawn the line at temporary blindness and burning. Anything more effective, and suddenly your the criminal.

Heres something nobody talks about. You can only buy pepper spray legally from a licensed firearms dealer or a pharmacist. Think about that for a second. The same person who fills your blood pressure medication is one of the only people in New York allowed to sell you something to stop an attacker on the L train. And when you buy it, you sign a form. Your name goes in a database. Before you’ve ever used it, theres already a paper trail connecting you to that canister.

Everyone knows the subway can be dangerous at 2am. Everyone knows pepper spray is legal to carry. Almost nobody carries it. Why? Because the moment you spray someone in an enclosed subway car, youve incapacitated yourself and every other passenger too. That burning sensation dosent check IDs – it hits everyone within fifteen feet. Your attacker is down. So is the grandmother sitting behind you. Now your explaining to police why six people are crying and coughing and one of them is pressing charges against YOU.

The question isnt whether pepper spray is legal in NYC. It is. The question is whether YOU using pepper spray in YOUR specific situation was legally justified. Carry it perfectly legally for three years, use it once when you probly shouldnt have, and your facing assault charges. The legality of the object is the easy part. The legality of what you did with it – thats were people get destroyed.