A Measured, Tested Approach to Everyday Carry

The gear we carry should be approached in a very deliberate manner. Gear for the urban jungle will be different than gear carried in an off-grid environment. Your gear should reflect what is needed in your individual location. But while items of gear may vary, gear should be concealable, accessible, and you should be competent and confident in each piece of kit you carry.

EDC (Everyday Carry)

I couldn’t tell you exactly when I settled on carrying my Gen 4 Glock 19, but I am damn glad I did. After years of carrying an issued Sig Sauer for work, I broke free. And now pretty much rely on Glocks for my everyday carry.

That is however, with the exception of one month each year when I go old school and carry my Colt 1911. It’s like dating a new woman, she’s classy and everything the Glock isn’t, but lacks capacity. I digress. People often ask me about carrying a smaller gun for comfort. But this isn’t about comfort, it’s about carrying the largest firearm you are most proficient with and still able to conceal. That is, if you are truly carrying a firearm for defensive purposes.

“I know of your past fondness for the German varieties, but I can wholeheartedly endorse the new breed of Austrians.” ~John Wick: Chapter 2

The G19 strikes that perfect balance for me. I can hide it under a t-shirt with a CrossBreed in-the-pants holster, and have the peace of mind that I can shoot it at distance and still get A-Zone hits. Try that with a micro gun. Then there’s capacity. The G19 packs fifteen round magazines. That’s a lot of capacity, especially when you top off with one in the chamber.

Useful modifications to the Glock 19

My G19, is a bit modified shall we say, but every single modification has a purpose. It’s stippled to provide a better grip when my hands are sweaty or worse, bloody. The trigger guard is undercut so that I can get my hand higher on the grip and cover more surface. The grip as it applies in marksmanship is all about contact and friction. This allows me the maximum of both.

I replaced the stock trigger with one from Apex. While Glock has a great trigger right out of the box, the Apex has a great wall. I know exactly when the shot will break. Some people will advocate for surprise shots – that’s great in the beginning, but at some point, we move past that. I want to take up the slack, get to the wall, finalize my sights and press off rounds exactly when I am ready.

The factory Glock sights are adequate for plinking, but fall short when you compare them to aftermarket combat or precision sights. I recently installed Taran Tactical Ultimate Fiber Optic Sights. The front dot draws your eye to it because of the contrast. The rear notch is wide with a skinny front blade. This is exactly what you want in a set of sights, precision. My favorite part about sights is the front dot sits at the very top of the sight post. The exact reference for point of impact, no guessing. Simply float the dot and shoot the shot and that will be your point of impact.

I carry a seventeen-round G17 magazine in my support side pocket. If I am carrying a firearm, I have a spare magazine. I’m not in the ‘One is None’ camp, where dudes are running around like Tackleberry with five knives for every occasion. But the reason I always carry a spare is the magazine baseplate often becomes the weak link. One slip and fall and you could easily knock that baseplate off and send your rounds all over the street. Besides, A wise man, George Harris, former Director of the Sig Sauer Academy, once told me, you can’t have too much ammo, unless you’re swimming or on fire.

Blade

“There was never a good knife made of bad steel.” ~Benjamin Franklin

The knife I carry, does it all. It’s a DPx HEST made from Lion Steel. It is sharp enough to cut a seatbelt, and comes equipped with a glass breaker and perhaps most importantly, a bottle opener. The DPx HEST is a dynamo of a knife. It’s everything a pocket knife should be.

AMMO

 “A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammo.” ~Rudyard Kipling

It’s important to know and trust your carry ammo. I carry Speer Gold Dolt 9mm +P, 124 gr, JHP. This Gold Dot round is a bonded hollow point. It is well reviewed and selected by many federal, state, and local agencies. It has great penetration, expansion, and retention. I have been fortunate enough to test this round on vehicles, windshields, intermediate barriers, and on gel. If you have the ability to test your ammo on different materials, I highly recommend it. You will see first-hand how the round you carry stacks up to others. You’ll also see that the lore being spun at the gun club about bullet performance versus vehicles is likely way off the mark.

Med Gear

“I aint got time to bleed.” ~SGT Blain

Extremity bleeding accounts for 60% of preventable battlefield deaths. The numbers of deaths due to extremity bleeds is understandably lower in civilian shootings, but still a concern for anyone carrying a firearm. The SOF Tourniquet is the only piece of medical gear I carry in the summer. It is small enough to fit in my pocket and easy enough to use for self-application. The CAT Tourniquet is a great option too, I just like the metal windlass on the SOF-T. In colder months, I add an Israeli Dressing and nitrile gloves in my jacket pocket. The gloves are typically the blue variety as I am able to see blood on them when performing a gross blood sweep. The black gloves look cool, but when using in the presence of blood to locate a gunshot wound, they’re of little use.

Barter Items

“Honesty stands at the gate and knocks, and bribery enters in.” ~Barnabe Rich

I travel overseas quite a bit to places where human life is very cheap and of course, can’t carry a firearm. Whether you’re dealing with corrupt cops, stick-up men, or having to bug out of an area via gypsy cab because a riot kicked off, sometimes your life may depend on what you have to trade.

I wear an Orvis watch. Some people view the Rolex as the ultimate bribe or trade piece, and I don’t disagree. But I subscribe to the school of thought to never wear anything that someone would be willing to kill me for. So the Orvis watch makes for a great trade and I don’t care about it.

I also carry a $100 prepaid Vanilla Visa gift card which can be gifted. I can also present it as my only form of payment if I am shaken’ down by a corrupt club owner, or scammed at a restaurant. It can also be swiped through a reader by a legit taxi. While you watch the angry mob getting smaller in the back window as you exfil to the airport. Best part, it has no identifiers on it that are linked to anyone; it’s plastic cash.

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” ~Archilochus

Closing Argument

When it comes to Everyday Carry gear, it’s all virtually useless if you don’t train under stress. But for those that do, they become an invaluable member of society. Spend your time and money on well vetted instruction and gear you are comfortable with. A trained individual with the right equipment and knowledge can mean the difference between life and death for themselves and those around them. There is no higher calling than saving lives. That’s what well trained people do.

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David Bruce is a retired federal law enforcement officer with assignments in counterterrorism investigations, and training cadre positions. As a task force officer for the Boston FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) he has spent over five years investigating domestic and international terrorism cases. Prior to his assignment on the JTTF, he served as the lead instructor for the Boston Office of the Federal Air Marshal Service teaching, anti-hijacking tactics, firearms, law enforcement response to active shooter, and tactical surveillance. David also served for a decade as an Adjunct Firearms Instructor at the Sig Sauer Academy. In 2019, David graduated from UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Before embarking on a twenty-five-year career in law enforcement he served in the US Army as a paratrooper/combat medic in the 82^nd Airborne Division.