I should probably do better about this
If you’re wandering around in public with a loaded gun on your person, but without at least minimal tools to stop a bleeding gunshot wound close to hand and some training to use them, I flat-out question your judgment.
I have one in each vehicle, one at home, and one in the range bag. I rarely carry one on me, which could be a mistake.
May 7th, 2019 at 6:02 pm
I am not a combat infantryman.
I am not a combat medic.
With those two job descriptions eliminated from my self assessment, that means I can skip about 50 pounds of recommended shit that gun writers and preppers think everyone should carry at all times.
Or didn’t Scouts teach you how to use your clothes for many first aid situations?
May 7th, 2019 at 11:38 pm
Having read this and Tam’s posts, I took a glance at offerings on Amazon, and was confused by all the offerings/astonished at the prices charged. Are there any articles in the gun publications on basic, affordable kits? If not, there should be.
May 8th, 2019 at 12:06 am
No matter who you are, learn how to use a proper tourniquet and at least carry one in your car and have one in your house.
https://www.bleedingcontrol.org
Shears, nitrile gloves, sharpie (for marking application time), and a compression dressing are nice to haves, but the tourniquet is the thing that saves lives.
May 8th, 2019 at 11:09 am
Tam can go stuff it. ‘Question your judgement’… zzzz what a bore. If you wanna carry first aid equipment (as I do in my car) that’s ok. I even have a good firstaid kit on me while I hike. Still it ain’t a requirement to carry CCW.
Geeze man. CCW has been here since guns were invented and no one screamed they needed to pack first aid everywhere.
May 8th, 2019 at 1:39 pm
Note that the author elided exactly how/where to carry trauma treatment tools, and left it to your own discretion and intelligence. They should be “close at hand,” not necessarily on your shoulder-carried, desert camo 75 pound OP-RUCK. And if we all did it the same, how would I ever “flat-out question your judgment” again?
May 8th, 2019 at 2:45 pm
What IS a minimal kit for that that one can reasonably carry at all times?
A string for an improv tourniquet and a small packet of clotting compound? A tampon?
May 8th, 2019 at 2:47 pm
(And ref. that and above, if you’re “in town”, basically the only thing you REALLY need to do, assuming other people are around or you can use YOUR phone, is “stop someone/you from bleeding to death until the EMTs arrive with real kit”.
Elevate, pressure, even a half-assed, poorly-applied tourniquet should do a LOT for “not bleeding to death in the next ten or fifteen minutes or so”.
And you might well have to rely on others if you’re the one shot, because shock might make it … difficult to DIY.)
May 8th, 2019 at 3:05 pm
I’m waaaay too old and broken to carry all of the EDC gear and EMS gear that I am ‘supposed’ to carry and I certainly cannot afford to hire a designated sherpa to carry everything. IOW – carry what you can and are competent and comfortable with.
May 8th, 2019 at 5:28 pm
“I carry a 2lb gun because I might be in a gun fight”
“I don’t carry an 8oz GSW kit because it’s heavy and, really, what are the chances of me needing that?”
Okay, then.
You do you. I don’t care. But the attitudes are a little comical.
May 8th, 2019 at 8:00 pm
Well here you go. $50 gets you a minimal kit that you can carry anywhere. How do I know you can carry it anywhere? Because every day – I mean, every day – I carry supplies that take up a similar footprint.
If you have pockets, you can carry some sort of bleeding control kit.
http://darkangelmedical.com/pocket-d-a-r-k-mini-trauma-kit/
May 9th, 2019 at 9:00 am
The way this rustles jimmies is both comical and telling.
May 9th, 2019 at 9:50 am
I hope you people who think you don’t need to carry a TQ at least carry condoms.
May 9th, 2019 at 12:10 pm
@someone says: “sharpie (for marking application time)”
To me that makes perfect, obvious sense. Every single EMT and ER doc I’ve mentioned this to, however, have said “Doesn’t matter when it was applied, as long as it WAS applied. We can either save the limb, or we can’t.”
May 9th, 2019 at 12:13 pm
Tam is becoming more and more like your least favorite aunt. Even when she’s right, her holier-than-thou demeanor makes me want to yawn insultingly in her face.
May 10th, 2019 at 9:38 am
“Least Favorite Aunt” should be a t-shirt at Cafe Press, along with “I Yawn Insultingly.”
May 12th, 2019 at 3:03 am
I have 2 of these in my roughly $1000 first aid kit in the trunk. I’m rarely 30 seconds away from it, and friends and family know it’s there. In addition to magic bandages and super tourniquets I have:
epi-pen (generic)
med grade super glue
suture kit
vomit tonic
narcan
and a bunch of other stuff some of which it’s nominally illegal for me to possess.
I’ve used the epi-pen and some advanced laceration management stuff. Wish I had been called for the narcan a few years ago, the kid died.
Not a doc, nurse, emt; but they tell me what to buy. I can shoot a pic of the kit and its contents if you like, it’s tiny.
Have been think of adding an aed.