Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Napan Sheila Molles regularly invites female friends to home parties to sell products. But this is not makeup or Tupperware.
As a representative for Damsel in Defense, Molles sells stun guns and other defensive weapons, put into pretty packages to appeal to women.
Molles, who works for the Vacaville Department of Corrections in her day job, said that women have a self-defense gap not only because they face the risk of sexual assault, but also because they are usually less comfortable with personal weapons than men are. Damsel in Defense, which was started by two women in 2011, aims to change that.
“Women don’t hang out in gun stores,” Molles said. “There’s this ‘oh my gosh, I couldn’t do that’ attitude. When you’re doing home parties, it takes the intimidation factor away.”
Molles got involved with Damsel in Defense last October, when she saw a sticker advertising the company on someone’s car and decided to look it up. She now makes about $300 to $400 a month selling stun guns, pepper spray, door alarms, and safes that are disguised as cans of hairspray.
Most of the products are in colors like pink, purple and light blue to appeal to women, but the company has been expanding into more gender-neutral products over the past year, Molles said. Her husband and son now each have their own black can of pepper spray from Damsel in Defense.
Prices range from $10 for a small “striking tool,” to $65 for a stun gun. Pepper spray, the most popular product with women under 25, runs $20 to $30.
Molles says she likes the products because they work as powerful deterrents for would-be victims of crime, but they do not have the legal restrictions and killing power of firearms.
“I’m able to carry a concealed weapon, but it’s a huge responsibility,” Molles said. “Obviously, a stun gun and pepper spray is no match for a gun, but it can be a deterrent. It’s been proven to do it time and again.”
According to Molles, getting self-defense products into women’s hands is important because of the prevalence of all types of crime, but especially sexual assault. One in five women is a survivor of rape, Molles said, and women ages 18 to 25 are four times as likely to be raped as women in general.
“I’m not a fear-monger, but I’m a realist,” Molles said. “When women have self-defense products, you see them stand a little straighter.”