The EDC Bag

Everyone, especially in these tense and violent times, should carry some essentials everywhere they go, to enable them to be a little more prepared than if they had nothing with them. 

We’re not discussing a full get-home bag, or a bug-out bag, this is a small, simple bag that carries some very basic items to assist you.  It’s a supplement, not a replacement for larger bags.

I always like to check God’s Ultimate Tactical Handbook, and in the very same verse that He commands His followers to always be armed, he tells you to carry an EDC bag.  What, you didn’t ever see that in the Bible?  It’s clearly spelled out in Luke 22:36

He said to them, “But now if you have a purse,

Take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, 

Sell your cloak and buy one.”

Luke 22:36

In modern terms, a sword would be a handgun/firearm, a purse would be a wallet, and a bag would be an EDC bag.  See? You learned something from the Bible today. 

What I use is a Bail Out Bag.  There are many manufacturers, and nearly all identical.  Mine is from LA Police Gear (www.lapolicegear.com).  

As an overview, it has pockets all the way around, two end pouches that could hold gear or water bottles, and a center opening, with a removable divider.  My center divider has a universal holster built in.

Let’s work our way around the bag, and I’ll discuss what I carry in each area.

On this side, we have a long zipper pocket on the bottom (which fits an expandable baton or 32 round Glock 23 magazine nicely), a medium zipper pocket on top, pen slots, and another larger slot that can hold either a flashlight or an expandable baton.

The contents I have on this side are a Rite in The Rain pen (www.riteintherain.com), another pen and a mechanical pencil, a 700 lumen flashlight from Tactical Gear (www.tacticalgear.com), and a sillcock key.  The sillcock key will enable you to open commercial water faucets on the outside of commercial businesses in an emergency.  It’s a great little tool to have, and I got mine at Lowe’s.

In the medium pocket, I keep a Solatac PTK (www.solatac.com).  This is a great first aid kit, with everything you need to treat major penetrating trauma, like a gunshot wound or a knife wound, or a serious traffic injury.  The kit includes a SWAT-T tourniquet, which is one of my favorites.  I like Solatac kits because of the quality, and it’s literally a husband & wife operation.  I’d rather support small business than buy a kit from a major corporation.

On the opposite side, the bag has several smaller Velcro-closure pockets.  The two larger ones can hold AR/AK mags quite easily, but I don’t use them for that daily, I’d rather not panic people everywhere I go.

Inside the pockets on this side I keep a trauma bandage (you can’t carry too many of them), a boo-boo kit of several different types of band-aids, a package of hand sanitizer wipes, surface cleaning wipes, spare flashlight batteries, a mini-tool, a multi-tool, and a ferroceum rod (you never know when you might need to burn down a capitalist monument or something).

Inside the main compartment, I have my two Battleboard Scouts (www.battleboard.us), a Medium and a Small.  In the Medium, I carry a map of the local area I’ll be in that day, in case I need to move quickly without cell service.  The other one I have in the window either my checklist for the day or, as the photo shows, a Rite in The Rain tactical checklist, this one is for treating a casualty or completing a SPOT Report.  The cool thing about the Battleboard is that I can write directly on it with dry or wet erase pens, recording the information.  I also keep inside my tablet (in it’s nice Realtree case), some index cards, and additional maps or paper.  Whatever I need for the day.

The end pouches are perfect for Nalgene water bottles, but I usually throw some of my modular kits in the ends.

This kit is my Admin/Daily kit.  I holds pens & mechanical pencils, a Rite in The Rain notebook, a signaling mirror (although I use it daily for surveillance), a small knife, a penlight, and a UV light (I use that to verify ID cards professionally), and a spare handcuff key (who doesn’t need a spare handcuff, they can come in handy…).

In the other end, I usually carry a survival kit with another ferroceum rod, fire starter kindling, stormproof matches, a small knife, a tool card, and camouflage face paint, which also has another mirror.  Yes, camouflage face paint can come in handy (don’t ask).  I also keep an Anker power bank and a small bottle of spray hand sanitizer in this pocket.

Attached to the bag in various points, I have a P38 & a P51 can opener, a bottle opener, a couple of small pry tools, a CPR mask, and a USB rechargeable light. I also always keep a Camstick 1080p body camera in the bag…it can be a life-saver.

The last thing I carry in the bag is an “Instant ANTIFA” kit.  In the event I find myself trapped in a spontaneous protest, throwing on a black full-face mask and a pair of black gloves is the best camouflage you can have.  I also keep a couple of different colored masks for quick appearance changes (in our current situation, people fixate on masks for identification).

You’ll notice that I mentioned that the bag has a holster and that a couple of the pockets could hold batons, but I don’t carry any of those in the bag.  The reason for that is that personal weapons belong ON YOUR PERSON.  They shouldn’t be kept in anything that can be stolen or removed from you.

I also carry on my person, because it’s that important, a Surefire ProTac 2L and a Gerber multi-tool.  I can’t forget them if they are attached to my body.

I hope this gives you some ideas help spur you to create or modify what you carry daily. 

As our situation gets more and more precarious, you need to carry at least some emergency supplies everywhere you go.