A couple weeks back
I posted a video blog about my EDC (every day carry) items. I took some heat from a few folks because I did not include a knife in that video.
I happen to carry a knife just about everywhere I go, but I don’t consider it an effective self-defense weapon because I have not done any training with a knife. Effective knife fighting is more than just, “Apply sharp edge to bad guy. Repeat as needed.”
And the way I look at it, if I can legally use a knife, well then I can legally use a gun and that is what I’m going to reach for. I don’t want to be up close and personal. I want to be backing away; moving to cover and putting some distance between my body and my attacker.
While I am sure a knife can be used as an effective self-defense tool, I am smart enough to know what I don’t know. And I don’t know how to fight effectively with a knife. So I call my knives “tools” instead of weapons.
You can likely tell from the way this column started that I would never advocate against carrying a knife as part of your everyday gear. I’m just suggesting that if you do choose to carry a knife and consider it part of your personal protection plan that you get some effective training in the use of a knife for defense. The typical tactical folding knife is something very difficult to get into action in a stressful situation. Keep that in mind when you are planning to defend yourself.
As a response to that same column, some people questioned my use of pepper spray as an alternate weapon. One reader even went so far as to claim that pepper spray would disable the user, but not the attacker. If the stuff is so debilitating that it will shut you down, it has to have some effect on the attacker. Right?
I carry pepper spray delivered as a solid stream. It shoots about 15 feet. And I can tell you from painful experience that during OC exposure training the stream worked very well delivering the pain to academy recruits and never once did the instructor have to stop spraying said recruits because of some sort of overspray or splash back. COULD you get cross contamination? Yep. You could. But that is no reason to avoid the product as a viable self-defense tool.
I have been sprayed with pepper spray five times. It has never gotten any easier to deal with. But in each of those training evolutions the instructor has remained standing. Remember, your goal in a self-defense scenario is to create enough dysfunction to escape the scene unharmed. So if you spray a northbound assailant with your pepper spray, the best thing for you to do is get moving either east or west until you get to a safe place.
Finally, any suggestion of a kit is just that, a suggestion. Your EDC gear is personal for your needs and your level of training and confidence. I can’t tell you what you must carry. I can only give you options that you need to evaluate on your own.
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