[egwor]

I would have imagined that a baseball bat isn't good in a one vs group situation. As you hit one person the others grab you and wrestle the bat off you. Consequently the bat would probably be turned on you. As one parent commenter further noted: once you get riot mentality the mob/riot is entirely unpredictable. I'd imagine you would be in a perilous situation.

Considering the example: If you were a shop owner in your shop vs a mob, I'd suggest that if you had to fight tere's a good probability that you were fighting for your life anyway. You would most likely be trying to permanently disable any threat. Perhaps a blow to the knee? I don't know how anyone would react.

The thing you need to consider is this: in the UK you aren't encouraged to buy equipment designed to hurt people (for example there's legislation on knives (length) and for guns you need licenses which are very hard to get). Also the law tends to be unfavaourable if you simply kill an intruder. You really have to be using due force. Now consider you're home alone and a mob arrives at your door/flat. What do you do to protect yourself? What equipment (that you can easily justify was used in self defence or with appropriate force) should you use that might just persuade them that it's not worth the effort?

Perhaps getting the aluminium one to put them off?