Proposal Seeks End to Pepper Spray Training

For one year, Californians have been able to buy pepper spray for self-defense--as long as they take a $17 training course. Now, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, the author of the 1993 law that legalized the spray, want to eliminate the training requirement.

“I’m convinced, and Assemblywoman Speier is convinced, that we can eliminate the red tape required for buying pepper spray,” Lungren said this week.

“Everyone knows how to use an aerosol can. We use them every day, from hair spray to bug spray.”

The training requirement was imposed because law enforcement officials were wary about whether the spray would be abused or cause deaths or injuries, Lungren said.

He said more than 126,000 people have taken the training since March 1, 1994, and there have been no deaths or crimes exclusively attributed to the spray.

“For the average person, I believe pepper spray is now a real alternative to a firearm for personal protection,” he said.

Speier’s new bill, which will be heard in an Assembly committee this spring, would keep it illegal to use pepper spray against a police officer or to commit a crime and would retain the minimum age of 18, or 16 with a parent’s permission.