Tactical Pens

[hso]

The goal is to escape, not annihilate the enemy. That's ego talking, the need to punish anyone who dares touch you.

You know your friends better than we might presume to, but in the use of force continuum some people will not be made to break off or be incapacitated by anything more than great injury. Small tools required proportionally greater skill to help ensure your safety. conw and you and I would be more successful with your small knife or a Bic pen or kubaton because we've trained in how to apply their limited injury potential to the optimum use. If the folks that have commented on Sam's knife have equivalent training then they're either bloodthursty or they're envisioning a worst case PCP/Meth/Prison Sifu opponent that has to be destroyed to gain escape.

 

[JShirley]

...or they were raped 25 years ago. But you'll notice several posts in this thread about penetrating the ribs, when that should be far down the list of best targets.

John

 

[hso]

Far from a best target in trying to effect an escape. I'm not sure any pen of practical carry size would be of able to serve. Too short to hit vital organs so there's not a lot of point focusing on using a pen for that purpose.

 

[Texan Scott]

My thought (just from my perspective when working at a service counter) is that anyone coming OVER the counter/ THROUGH the service window will necessarily be presenting the backs of their hands and tops of their shoulder sockets as obvious strike targets... and that S&W pen will hurt a lot more than a Swingline stapler.

 

[conw]

I think one advantage of a heavy, fairly sharp "tactical" pen is that if you carry it around your collar area, you can access it in a very compressed position and it's hard for someone to interfere with the "drawstroke."

Think about your typical reaction if someone were to poke toward your eyes with their fingers (a little kid, or something along those lines) - you might blink, turn your head away, or try to smack the fingers out of the way.

Now imagine if you were 12-18" from someone and had limited options for whatever reason (can't access other weapons, don't have them, may not be confident in your H2H skills at that range, etc). If you can access a pen around your collar area, you can deliver some rapid-fire jabs in the direction of their face - I like a reverse grip for this.

The idea is not to maim, disfigure, or kill them; it's to get that 2-second reaction from taking them off guard, just like with pepper-spray. From there you may have opened up other ways of delivering some more damaging blows, or perhaps an avenue of escape.

The use of things like this, IMO, is dependent on a sense of timing and realistic expectations as to the effect. If you think you will drop them with one attempted jab to the face you are probably wrong. There may not even be much of an effect. But you can probably get just enough of a flinch/surprise reaction to follow it up with something more useful, and the pen lets you target and generate a reasonable amount of pinpoint force at very close distances fairly effectively.

 

[Gordon]

Very succinct Conwic !

 

[hso]

I keep mine clipped to the placket of my shirt right on the midline just above the nipple line. That way it doesn't matter if I'm wearing a pocketed shirt or not (I almost always am wearing a "polo" shirt or full button up).

 

[Deltaboy1984]

I think one advantage of a heavy, fairly sharp "tactical" pen is that if you carry it around your collar area, you can access it in a very compressed position and it's hard for someone to interfere with the "drawstroke."

Think about your typical reaction if someone were to poke toward your eyes with their fingers (a little kid, or something along those lines) - you might blink, turn your head away, or try to smack the fingers out of the way.

Now imagine if you were 12-18" from someone and had limited options for whatever reason (can't access other weapons, don't have them, may not be confident in your H2H skills at that range, etc). If you can access a pen around your collar area, you can deliver some rapid-fire jabs in the direction of their face - I like a reverse grip for this.

The idea is not to maim, disfigure, or kill them; it's to get that 2-second reaction from taking them off guard, just like with pepper-spray. From there you may have opened up other ways of delivering some more damaging blows, or perhaps an avenue of escape.

The use of things like this, IMO, is dependent on a sense of timing and realistic expectations as to the effect. If you think you will drop them with one attempted jab to the face you are probably wrong. There may not even be much of an effect. But you can probably get just enough of a flinch/surprise reaction to follow it up with something more useful, and the pen lets you target and generate a reasonable amount of pinpoint force at very close distances fairly effectively.

Well said : You have to be willing to inflict pain in order to escape or win the fight. I am teaching my 14 year old daughter this hard fact of life; That there are bad and some crazy people that you might have to hurt or kill so you can return home.

 

[InkEd]

How about a Zebra F-701?