Even better than MA, and even a gun for that matter, is to just have a trained police dog with you. Its like walking around with a lion by your side.
Downside to packing a gun is you got to be willing to shoot to kill, most people think they can but in the split second they invevitably hesitate deciding to fire or not, if the bad guy is packing too, you're fucked. Plus it's very rare, especially in the dark, and when you aren't expecting something, to be able to get your gun out fast every time and get a good on target lethal first shot. You can also lose control of the weapon if you shoot and the guy is juiced up and keeps coming at you.
From all the experiences I've had, having a huge and highly intimidating dog, has worked the best. Couple weeks a go for example, taking a late night walk by the beach and a couple of gangsta types saw me walking alone coming around a corner and started crossing from the other side of the road towards me. I use a long leash so between that, the angle I was at, and the dark shadows, they didn't see my Shepherd. When he alerted and started going ballistic they did a 180 and hightailed it down the street. LOL
K9 dogs have such a powerful fierce killer look about them that instantly says don't even think about it.
