The Immediate Response Bag or Pouch

It's eleven-thirty at night; you're in bed; lamp on the nightstand is on; you've got a good book that you're reading; pretty soon you'll be turning out the light because you realize you can't remember the last three sentences you read. And then you hear a crash that sounds like it came from your backyard. It sounded like a mix of glass breaking, a trashcan being knocked over, and then some shouting. As you listen you realize that the shouting is getting louder, but only on one side - the other side, a female from the sound of the voice - is getting more hysterical… her voice full of fear. You remember that your neighbors have recently separated and that the male half has a history of drinking, accompanied by violence when he's drunk.

You do what any responsible neighbor would do and you pick up your phone to dial 911. While the phone is ringing, things sound even worse and you know that, even as you try to report this to the police to get assistance, you have to take some action yourself. You can't sit idly by and let your female neighbor get hurt; or worse, killed. With the phone in one hand held to your ear, you reach into your bedside drawer and grab your Immediate Response bag. What have you got inside?

If you are legally permitted and properly trained, it should have a handgun in it, along with one spare magazine of ammunition for that handgun. Whether your keep the handgun loaded, with a round chambered or not, is entirely up to you; the level of your training; and your comfort level concerning the safety of such a storage condition in your house. As with almost everything I'll list throughout this article, it is much better to have that handgun and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

 

You should definitely have a good quality flashlight, and you should make it a point to learn how to use it properly - to your greatest advantage. There are a great many people who think that using a flashlight properly means turning it on, shining it around and then turning it off. They couldn't be more wrong. If you learn how human vision works; how it can be impacted by bright white light in the dark; how the brain reacts to that light and attached loss of vision; you'll realize what a powerful tool that simple light can be. I strongly recommend that you make it an LED flashlight. The LED is near impossible to break and it provides longer run times out of a set of batteries.

A good quality folding lock blade knife. Why? "Just because" may not be the best answer in the world, but it's often the best answer we can come up with. I think it's just ingrained in the way I think because of the way I was raised. I don't leave the house without a knife on my person. A decent folding lock blade can do so many things and serve in so many ways. The plain utility of cutting materials is obvious; the potential to be used as a weapon in defense of yourself is another option; cutting screens or clothing - if you can imagine a set of circumstances in which you might need to do either - becomes possible. A knife is the one thing that you'll wish you had at some point, and can't think of a good reason not to have. Drop one in there.

A small canister of OC Spray, otherwise known as "pepper spray" or "pepper mace" is a great thing to have in that bag. We police officers don't call it liquid hell for nothing. If you run into that belligerent person who isn't presenting an immediate physical threat to you, but is less than cooperative, waving their arms around, shouting, closing distance on you but then stalking away… you feel unsure about the safety of the situation but you can't shoot the guy. It's okay… get that OC Can in your hand and when he stalks back to within six feet, give him a sprits in the eyes. It'll do wonders to calm him down. And if it doesn't, since he'll be about 95% blind, you'll definitely have the upper hand in any physical conflict that comes along.

Because I'm a police officer, I keep a pair of handcuffs in my Immediate Response Bag. Once that guy has been sprits with OC, or subdued in some other fashion, I'm putting the cuffs on him and standing by for an on-duty uniform officer. If you are a civilian and don't know how to properly apply handcuffs; if you've never had a control-tactics class; I'd advise you to keep your distance unless circumstances don't permit it. Handcuffs aren't cheap. If you want a cost-effective alternative, go with a couple of pair of flexi-cuffs. These are (essentially) big wire ties made of strong vinyl that bind the wrists. They aren't as easy to get on, but it's better than trying to cut down your clothesline to bind a guy. Then again, you do have that knife…

Keep in mind throughout all of this, once you've dialed 911, you shouldn't disconnect from the emergency communications center unless they tell you to hang up. Even if you get so busy fighting someone that you have to hang the phone on the waistband of the Bag, or even drop it on the ground, don't hang up before you do it. Those good folks on the other end need to hear what's going on, and they direct the police response accordingly.

You don't need a big bag to be your Immediate Response Bag. There are a number of companies that manufacture heavy-duty nylon bags specifically designed to hold items such as those listed, and be worn around the waist. For the investment you'll make in the bag and equipment, you'll be glad you did if an emergency ever does occur. You make not look great in your boxers with that Immediate Response Bag strapped around your waist, but you can't possibly look any sillier than the off-duty cop I know who ran out of his apartment in purple sweat pants and his gun belt… to interrupt a rape getting ready to occur. Yeah - we gave him a hard time, but the victim he saved thought he was the best looking thing she'd ever seen.