Update Your EDC To Meet Today's Threats: My Story

 Are you carrying enough gun and ammunition? Probably not. 

My "EDC" BEFORE an increase in active shootings and growth of global terror groups: 11 rounds of 230 Grain .45 cal FMJ and a small knife.

Why do you carry a gun? Knife-wielding meth zombies? Rapists? Armed robbers? In those cases brandishing a Sig P250 might be enough to send such attackers running. Currently, however, America is facing violent threats uncommon to our society a generation ago. This means you need more gun  unless that P250 is a backup weapon.

When I moved back to the United States in 2003, after living abroad for seven years, I resided in a state different from where I was born. All of the firearms from my younger years were at a family  home thousands of miles from my new adopted state. I was essentially unarmed. That quickly changed once I got a roof over my head and a new driver's license.

Soon after acquiring my first "carry" pistol I received my CCW license, but rarely carried. I lived in a trendy downtown neighborhood and never thought much about crime. My then new Glock 30 sat gathering dust on a shelf in the closet of my master bedroom. There was an indoor gun range near my home but I rarely practiced. I didn't see any practical use in standing in a lane repeatedly loading, shooting, and reloading. It bored the bag off me, and even if I did go to the range I never burned through more than a 100 rounds. 

That all changed when I was introduced to a weapons instructor who was also retired US Army SF. No, I don't mean a super Ninja, stolen valor, phony Navy Seal weapons instructor. I mean a real former member of US Special Forces who taught gun fighting over just "shooting."

The handgun fighting techniques I learned from that former First Sergeant were like nothing I had ever seen or heard. Shooting with my eyes closed, shooting from the hip, shooting off handed and, of course, shooting and reloading cover to cover. I was the most confident I had ever been with a firearm.

Unfortunately my firearms instructor became my "former" firearms instructor when he took a better paying contractor job with, what was then, Blackwater in Iraq. It was at that time I asked, "what, as a civilian, will I ever do with knowledge of gun fighting techniques?"

Fast forward twelve years to a post financial collapse economy, weak and uncertain job sector, open southern border, unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, ubiquitous illicit drug cartels, record number of active shooting events (in gun free zones), and the explosive growth of Islamic terror, and I now know why I spent time and money learning to fight with a gun.

My EDC NOW: 40 Rounds of 230 Gr .45 Cal. FMJ, light, and a larger knife.

Carrying a gun is not about "feeling" safe. Carrying a gun is about ensuring that those who would injure or kill you are injured or killed by you.  If you are not carrying enough gun and ammo to deal with the worst of the aforementioned bad guys, you need to update. Times have changed.

Be armed. Be trained. Be prepared.