Read this before carrying anything we give you.

What a safety kit can and cannot do

A Lantern Kit can make you louder, more visible, and better lit. It can make it easier to be noticed and easier to leave. It cannot make you safe, it cannot stop someone who is determined, and it is not a substitute for shelter, for a locking door, or for the ability to get away.

We say this clearly because overstating what a tool does is how people get hurt. The single most effective thing in the kit is the alarm, and the single most effective strategy we teach is leaving.

Defense spray: age, permits, and place

Defense spray (OC or pepper spray) is regulated differently across the United States. Depending on where you are, the rules may cover:

• Whether it may be possessed or carried at all
• Minimum age — commonly 18, sometimes with an exception for minors with parental consent
• Maximum canister size and allowed concentration or formulation
• Whether a permit, registration, or purchase from a licensed dealer is required
• Where it may not be carried — commonly schools, courthouses, government buildings, secure areas of airports, and aboard aircraft
• Whether certain variants (gel, foam, tear gas blends, marking dye) are treated differently

Our policy: we include defense spray only where it is lawful for that recipient to carry, only for adults meeting the local minimum age, only on request, and only with a hands-on briefing and printed instruction card. It is never included in a youth kit. Anyone may decline it and still receive a complete kit. Where local law restricts it, kits go out with alarms, flashlights, whistles, and reflective bands instead, and we tell the recipient that's what happened.

Using a defensive tool has consequences

Self-defense law varies, and the fact that you felt threatened does not automatically make the use of a defensive tool lawful. Spray can affect bystanders, can blow back on you in wind, may not stop someone who is intoxicated or determined, and can escalate a confrontation. It can also be used against you if it is taken. We teach that noise and distance come first, every time.

Other items in the kit

• Personal alarms and whistles are legal to carry throughout the United States and are the tools we most encourage people to use.
• Defensive keychains in our kits are limited to a window-break tip, a quick-release ring, and a whistle. We do not distribute kubotans, pointed self-defense keychains, knives, or any striking weapon — several of those are restricted in some jurisdictions and none of them are appropriate for untrained use.
• Lithium battery items (flashlight, power bank) should be kept out of extreme heat, not charged unattended, and taken out of use if swollen or damaged.
• First aid supplies are for minor wound care only. Deep, dirty, or infected wounds need a clinic.
• Naloxone, where carried by our volunteers, is administered under the applicable state Good Samaritan and standing-order provisions.

Air travel and transit

Defense spray is prohibited in aircraft cabins and is restricted in checked baggage. Personal alarms, flashlights, and power banks have their own rules — power banks generally must travel in carry-on, not checked, baggage. Some transit systems and buildings have their own prohibitions.

Product liability and assumption of risk

Items in our kits are commercially manufactured products supplied by third parties. We do not manufacture them and make no warranty, express or implied, as to their fitness for any particular purpose. By accepting a kit you acknowledge that you use its contents at your own risk, in accordance with the law where you are, and that Hope in the Dark Project, its volunteers, board, and partners are not liable for any outcome arising from their use or misuse, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Not professional services

We are not a shelter, a medical provider, a mental health provider, a case management agency, or a law firm. Information on this website, on our resource cards, and in our workshops is general information, not professional advice. Referrals are offered in good faith; we do not control the services of the organizations we refer to.

Minors

Volunteers who work with anyone under 18 are background-checked and never operate one-on-one. We comply with mandatory reporting law in every jurisdiction where we operate, and our volunteers are trained to state this before a conversation rather than after it. Youth kits never contain defense spray.

Website content

Hotline numbers and resource listings are published in good faith and reviewed quarterly, but availability, hours, and eligibility change. Emergency numbers (911, 988, 211) are the most reliable path when something is wrong right now.

Questions or corrections

If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate for your jurisdiction, please tell us at hello@hopeinthedarkproject.org. We will correct it and note the change.

This notice is reviewed at least annually and whenever we begin operating in a new jurisdiction.