Last time we covered the always-carry gear you need whenever you walk out the door. Now, we examine the next level personal defense kits for when you need to “grab-and-go.”
by Paul G Markel
During Part 1 of our discussion regarding “No-Nonsense” kits for personal defense, we considered choosing gear for daily concealed carry and home defense. The first installment could be thought of as what I should have on me or close at hand when there is a 1-percent or less chance that I will be attacked or my home invaded.
For Part 2, we will consider building a no-nonsense kit for those other times — the times when there is trouble brewing and you cannot simply run away and hide from it. It has been offered, and I agree, that we carry handguns because they are easy to conceal and convenient to tote around. We do not carry handguns because they are the best tools available for stopping dangerous animals and homicidal predators. This is true regardless of your favorite pistol caliber. Soldiers carry rifles into battle as their primary weapons, not pistols. If handguns were the best tools for stopping a human threat, the Army would scrap the M4 and issue the infantry pistols.
Harm’s Way
The reasonable logic dispensed by gun gurus for years has always been, “You win every fight that you avoid.” Then there is the old axiom of, “No one wins a gunfight.” Hollywood loves to sneak that one into movies and TV shows to shame American gun owners by implying that resorting to a gun is somehow a failure on the part of the defender.
With the previous statements being all well and good, how does either one apply to a dangerous situation over which you have no control? Consider the civic disorder and chaos that seems to descend like clockwork on major metropolitan cities run by, shall we say, “Constitutionally-challenged” politicos in the immediate aftermath of a manmade or a natural disaster.
Can you run away from your home when the urban monsters decide to riot and burn down the city? Is it better to flee and become a refugee when a storm is threatening or when a tornado or earthquake strikes without any warning? My experience as a security contractor in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was that disasters bring out the best and the worst that society has to offer. We pray for the best, but we must be prepared for the worst.
It does not matter what the root cause of the civil emergency or crisis is, the results are always the same: law enforcement and emergency services are stretched thin and unable to deal with the volume of calls. We just witnessed this again last year in Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene.
Your community’s law enforcement agencies have barely enough personnel to deal with the calls for service they get when everything is “normal.” When the crisis hits, particularly when the cell towers are destroyed, attempting to call 9-1-1 and having someone come to save you is futile. Even if you have phone service, you can call, but no one is going to be coming for quite some time.
In addition to the theft, looting, robbery, and felonious assault, disasters have historically seen a huge spike in sexual assaults/rapes as the attackers seek out victims knowing the police are too busy to stop it. What kind of spike, you might ask? How about 300-percent?
More than Normal EDC Gear: Long Guns
We addressed the previous historical realities not to scare you but to help you understand that your normal EDC gear may not be quite enough to deal with the threats you are facing. Yes, we always have the Fundamental Four on our persons, but that is a minimum gear list, not the maximum.
I suppose this is as good a time as any to reinforce the reality that career criminals — those who will be looting your neighborhood, robbing you, and sexually assaulting your wives and daughters — are not afraid of handguns. Sorry to break your heart. These folks have grown up having pistols pointed at them by fellow hoods and the police. Many have been shot by handguns and lived to tell the tale.
Rifles, on the other hand, are a completely different story. One of many lessons learned from post-Katrina New Orleans was that the hoods and thugs ran wild for about three days until men in khaki pants, wearing body armor and carrying black rifles, showed up. Almost overnight, the out-of-control violence, day and night, stopped and the thugs and criminals took a more stealthy approach, using the cover of darkness to hide their deeds.
You see, the scumbags were bold when all they had to deal with was a vastly outnumbered NOPD armed with Glock 22 pistols; however, when teams of men carrying rifles arrived to protect the neighborhoods, infrastructure, and the few businesses that remained open, it suddenly wasn’t so much fun to be a thug anymore.
The moral of the lesson is simple: long guns are not only more effective from a ballistic standpoint, they are a much better deterrent to criminal behavior. Even gangbangers know that they don’t want to be shot with a rifle, or a shotgun, for that matter.
Not only should you possess a long gun, you need to have enough training and experience using it to be able to employ said firearm effectively as a fighting tool. Keep in mind that knowing how to shoot a gun is NOT the same as knowing how to fight with a gun. Thanks to the blessings of liberty afforded by our Bill of Rights, the AR-15 rifle is available to all free men and women of the United States. It is not difficult to learn to employ it as a fighting tool.
Everyone Has Guns
One of the biggest fallacies or misunderstandings that gun owners have is that the mere possession of a firearm is enough to protect them from evil doers. “Those folks better not come around here if they know what’s good for them,” spouts Elmer as he pats the Ruger Security Six in an Uncle Mike’s black nylon holster on his hip.
I hate to break it to Elmer and others but the people coming to steal all your food, fuel, et cetera are going to show up with guns in their hands. If they didn’t have guns when the crisis began, their first agenda was to go somewhere and steal them. No, they did not fill out a Form 4473 and wait 3 days.
So, if the bad guys are going to have guns and the good guys are going to have guns, what is the difference? Mindset, tactics, and training. Those with the best mindset, tactics, and training will be the ones who win.
When it comes to dealing with felonious crime and hyper-violent vermin, the average suburbanite gun owner is at a distinct disadvantage. The suburbanite is a “good person” and governed by a code of morality and/or a fear of doing the wrong thing and being arrested.
The thugs coming to attack you are not governed by that same moral code, nor do they fear being arrested. They don’t have professional careers to worry about. Being arrested is just a part of the game they play, and most have been in and out of jail and/or prison. Additionally, they are practiced at the unrestricted use of violence. Violence is how they get what they want, and they have absolutely zero compunction about using it on you to get what they desire. Neither will they lose sleep after assaulting or killing you. The fact that you consider yourself to be a “kind” and “reasonable” person will have no bearing on the outcome.
The Go Bag
Our ancestors, the Minutemen of New England, kept a haversack hanging on a peg next to their loaded musket so they would be prepared to go and not have to search for gear in an emergency. Our 21st Century “Go Bag” is a similar item. Stored in a sturdy, nylon sling bag will be items that you might need in the event that there is a crisis or emergency.
Here is a scenario for you. You live in what you consider a safe suburban or rural area; however, your 20-year-old daughter is at college in the city 90 minutes away. For whatever reason, that city has begun to descend into chaos. You need to jump in your truck NOW and get your daughter. Do you have the time or inclination to wander around your house looking for the “stuff” you might need? Swap out “daughter” for retired “mother and father” who’s neighborhood is becoming dangerously untenable.
What is in my Go Bag? First off, there is redundancy of the Fundamental Four: lethal, sharp, bright, and medical. If I had to run out of my house in shorts, T-shirt, and flip flops, I could grab the bag and have all the fundamentals covered. In addition to the basics, I have a large can of OC/Pepper Spray, one of the foggers. If an unarmed crowd mobs my truck, they are getting the whole can. If people with weapons attempt to mob my truck, that is a different story. My weapon of choice will be the accelerator.
In the previous scenario, where I need to rescue my daughter from college, I will be taking a rifle. At least one spare magazine for that rifle will be in the bag. In a realistic situation, one mag in the gun and one spare is A LOT of ammunition for a semi-automatic rifle.
PPE: Personal Protective Equipment
Keeping with the realistic understanding that the evil doers will be armed, we should address Personal Protective Equipment. I know that weak-minded folks don’t like to consider this, but during civil unrest, even a moron with a beer bottle or a broken brick can take you out if they score a hit on your cranium. And as we’ve seen in recent such episodes, a looter with a skateboard can crack your skull.
Consider this for a moment. It doesn’t matter that you spent $2000 on a top-end AR with all the GUCCI accessories if some jerk can throw a piece of landscape stone or a Corona bottle from a crowd and bust your melon. Mankind has only understood for about 10,000 years that protecting the head is important. Don’t believe me? Go to a history museum and look at the helmets from centuries ago.
Even when firearms were invented and soldiers discarded steel plate armor, they continued to wear helmets. My advice would be that if you can afford either a helmet or body armor but not both, buy the helmet first. One of my favorite modern helmets came from Full Forge Gear. My other go-to is Hard Head Veterans. HHV has multiple styles of head protection from ballistic to “bump guards.” If you already own a modern ATE ballistic helmet, the HHV “MicroLattice Pad” is THE BEST helmet padding system I have ever used and I have been wearing ballistic helmets for 38 years now.
If you do decide to go with an armor plate carrier and plates, Full Forge Gear has both Level IIIA and Level IV. FFG Level IV plates are composite and only weigh 5.7 pounds each, as opposed to 10 to 12 pounds for hardened AR500 steel.
For those unenlightened, NIJ Level IIIA will stop most handgun rounds and shotgun pellets. Level IV plates are designed to stop all common rifle rounds up to .30-06 Springfield and shotgun slugs. Yes, if you get pinged in the plate with a 12-gauge slug you will not be happy but at least your lungs won’t be on the ground behind you.
Naturally, the big benefit of a modern plate carrier is the ability to modify it to carry spare ammunition, first aid kits, radio pouches, et cetera. The MOLLE system allows the end user to personalize their set up any way they desire.
A word of advice from someone who has been wearing helmets and body armor since 1987 — if you are going to purchase said items, they need to be fitted and configured to your body before you need them in an emergency. Also, they are not “comfortable,” and you need to actually put them on and do stuff to get used to wearing them. If that is not something you are willing to do, that is your choice. But don’t waste your money on gear that you are unwilling to train in. Helmets and armor are not for everyone. From my perspective, I’d rather wear them and not end up needing them than not and regret that decision. There is a reason why the first major police body armor company was called “Second Chance.”
