If you can't carry a firearm, carry a knife.
That said, what the very vast majority of people need is training. Most people are grossly incompetent and are delusional if they think that they will suddenly have the skills to handle a younger stronger, skilled attacker/attackers.
I cannot tell you how many times over the course of carrying a gun for a living for decades I have had dudes square up/ bow up and say something to the effect of:
I am not going jail
I am not going back to prison
I am going to whup your ass
You aint man enough
Blah blah blah
only to find themselves being made into an asphalt angel and wondering what just happened.
It was not because I was bigger, or stronger.
It is simply because, much like shooting, lifting weights, running, or anything else, you have to actually develop skill sets and maintain them.
Martial skills require training and practice.
Men, primarily due to egos puff up. They cannot stand the reality check of someone either telling or showing them that they are grossly under prepared or incompetent and that their fantasies of sending the bad men scurrying like in the movies is simply not reality. Going and taking some Brazilian jiu-jitsu will humble you pretty quickly, especially when you are 200 pounds and a 140 pound dude whos 6"s shorter than you destroys you in 30 seconds.
My old partner was a serious BJJ practitioner and a little dude. He was quite advanced in the sport, and no matter how hard I tried, I could never get the upper hand on him. Neither could anyone else in my organization. He checked a lot of egos.
So before you go and buy a magic talisman and think that it will ward off evil, remember that there are over 3,000 BJJ gyms in the US alone and a BUNCH of mixed martial arts gyms that practice other forms. So relying on "Hope" as a strategy that your attackers will be weak and/or incompetent is foolish at best. Most attackers make a point of not attacking stronger opponents. They attack prey that they believe they can overpower/dominate.
Bottom line is you may want to consider doing something besides buying a stick and relying on hope.
Knife should be a given like Roger said.
Like Mackay stated, join a MMA gym. Train in BJJ every chance you get. Go to at least 1 boxing or Muay Thai class a week.
Nothing wrong with having good non-firearm weapons but if you're close enough to hit someone with something you're close enough for them to take you down and then you're toast if you aren't skilled (standing or on the ground).
I am a shark, the ground is my ocean, and most people can't even swim.
