There are lots of (less effective but still useful) alternatives to carrying a gun.
There are
NO substitutes for lack of a defensive mindset.
The less determined the mindset, the more ineffective the already less-effective alternatives become.
Fix the mindset, and the gear problem solves itself.
The best gear in the world won't solve the mindset problem.
There is absolutely nothing you can do to
make another free adult human being solve their own mindset problem. There are a few things you can do that might encourage or discourage a minset change, but nothing you can do will
make that change happen.
All that said, here's an article on pepper spray from my website:
www.corneredcat.com/Gear/pepperspray.aspx I've been meaning to do a similar write up for the TASER C2, but haven't gotten around to it yet. There's a thread here on TFL that discusses the C2 and several posts in it are thought provoking, IMO.
Good luck.
pax