HATE the CO2 technology
Once you pull the trigger, the CO2 cartridge starts to discharge. That makes sense. But if you don't take a lot of shots, reloading the Byrna several times to do that, and it sits for a few days (or longer) the CO2 cartridge empties (and can mess up the inside of the Byrna). So you have to load a new one. I HATE THAT. There's got to be a better way. I'm an older woman. I live in a very safe area (though a lot of people around me I know are gun carriers), so I didn't buy my Byrna primarily for self-defense. I use it almost exclusively to scare rabbits, raccoons and groundhogs away from my bird feeders and garden. Granted, that may not be its "intended" use, but it works well. (I don't deliberately hit them -- except the large raccoons, which also try to attack my goldfish pond -- but having the projectiles land right next to them is very effective to scare them.) However, I need to take only a few shots at a time to get that job done, and it will be several or more days before any such animal shows up again (or for the first time). So the Byrna sits unused -- and starts to leak CO2. I'm at the point at which I'm sorry I bought this thing. It also takes way too long to load. The projectiles often easily pop out of the top of the magazine as you're trying to do that. If I were truly in an emergency and the Byrna wasn't already loaded, and with a new CO2 cartridge, it would be fairly usely for protection.