Out of Tragedy, New Student Safety Rights Emerge

Tennessee’s General Assembly has recently passed and Governor Bill Lee has signed into law HB1909 more popularly known as the Laken Riley Act. This law will allow students on college campuses throughout the state of Tennessee to carry less-lethal self defense products on campus. Included in the list of acceptable devices are aerosol pepper spray, pepper gel, mace, and stun gun type devices.

This law was passed in the wake of the death of a Georgia student, Laken Riley, who was attacked, assaulted, and murdered by a violent illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Jose Antonio Ibarra, while jogging on campus at the University of Georgia.

This case highlighted the vulnerability students on college campuses have been prohibited from carrying force multipliers of any kind to be used in such scenarios. As a result of Riley’s death, there has been growing momentum for students to be allowed to possess and use force multipliers like pepper spray, mace, or stun guns to help fend off such attacks.  

Tennessee is the first state to enact such a student protection law. On the national level H.R. 7511 passed the House in March with bipartisan support, however the bill has been blocked in the Senate, forcing students across the country to depend on campus security and good luck to protect themselves while on campus. 

P2P has recently introduced the PGS II pepper gel device that allows users to accurately place up to 11 grams of pepper gel laced with UV dye on an attacker. The highly irritant factor of the sticky pepper gel in combination with UV dye helps you put distance between yourself and the attacker and helps ensure that the attacker is apprehended. The PGS II is available NOW at Prepared2Protect.life. 

To learn more about the Laken Riley case, click here.