Everyday Carry (E.D.C.)

Everyday Carry or E.D.C. are the essential items you will have on your person daily. For most, they tend to be your wallet, phone, and keys. However, what will be covered today is an expansion of your everyday carry. 

Here is a quick rundown of the essentials:

• Personal Items (wallet, phone, keys)
• Flashlight
• Lighter
• IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit)
• Utility tools (multitool)
• Personal Protection (Firearm and spare mags)

Do you have any of these as a part of your Everyday Carry?

Personal Items 

Personal items are, as stated, phone, wallet, and keys. That also includes personal medications and anything else needed to keep yourself regular daily. It may seem dumb to think about having the usual items on you, but not having them can cause a decent amount of stress.

Flashlight

Having a good Flashlight is always helpful. Whether you’re in a power outage, stuck on the side of the road, and so on. Your phone flashlight isn’t bright enough to illuminate anything darker than a slightly brighter-than-dim room. For example, in a self-defense case at night, you don’t want to be holding out your phone, blocking half of your vision, and not lighting anything up. A lovely, bright 400-lumen light will blind whoever you hit with that beam. A solid light made for defensive purposes is nearly indestructible and has a dim setting where it will go lower for more mundane tasks if you click it twice. You could even carry two, one for severe and another for ordinary uses, so the battery on the better one isn’t drained. 

Lighter 

Having a lighter as well is recommended. You won’t always need it to light a fire, but you may need it to use it as a candle. You can get a bag of B.I.C. lighters for cheap and keep them anywhere. A Zippo is great for a backup light source, but you must maintain the lighter fluid, flint, and wick if you use it enough. Another bonus of the Zippo is the cool parlor tricks you can learn. Plasma lighters only require the ability to be charged but are great against the weather. Windy and rainy? No problem. The Plasma will still work due to the contact points it uses. 

IFAK

Individual First Aid Kits are used for significant trauma injuries. The difference between a first aid kit and an IFAK is the damage caused. Having one will prepare you for a “That’s a lot of damage” situation that a first aid kit won’t fix. A basic IFAK contains a tourniquet, chest seals, gloves, gauze, and pressure wrap. These kits can be upgraded by yourself or by buying a more robust one. A rule of thumb is only to carry something you know how to use and not above your skill level. You also don’t necessarily need to carry it in its pre-packaged case. You could keep the contents in a ziplock bag, throw it into your pocket, or break it down even further and carry the tourniquet on you with a pack of gauze and a sharpie. You can make many configurations to fit an IFAK into your everyday carry that may save your or someone else’s life. 

Utility Tools 

Utility tools, commonly known as multitools, come in handy. I carry a Leatherman with the all-around setup, and that thing has saved me when at the range or even at my job. Multitools can come in many configurations; Leatherman offers pure electrician-based tools and even E.O.D. dedicated tools. The cheaper options for a Leatherman are the Gerber and S.O.G. multitools. They are less robust than the Leatherman, but they still make specific tools for camping. Being able to whip out a screwdriver, knife, and pliers without searching for that one tool in a toolbox is a time saver. 

Personal Protection

Personal protection is necessary, especially the way the world is today. Carrying a pistol is an obvious choice and one of the best deterrents. Choosing a concealed carry firearm is based on your personal preference. Look, feel, size, available parts, accessories, and much more come into play, but it is easy to find the right fit for you. Concealing a pistol is the way most people go because of how discreet you can be, and no one is staring at you when you have it. To carry concealed carry, you must check your local and state laws; in P.A., you need a Pennsylvania concealed carry permit, and in some states, it’s completely banned. It would help if you had an appropriate belt and holster to carry the weight of the pistol and any extra mags you carry. You can go in various ways; some of the most popular are the SIG P365, Glock 43X & 19, Springfield Hellcat, and the M&P Shield. You can carry a full-size model of a Gun, but a compact one makes it easier to conceal and fit on your body. It all comes back to personal preference, how many rounds the magazine can hold, and what you can realistically carry and use for your everyday carry. 

Hopefully, you have gained some insight on expanding your Everyday Carry to be more prepared for a wider variety of situations that life throws at you. You can make yourself more Survival Ready.