Do we have to list
everything?
Ok, keychain. One medium grade commercial security key for the house, all locks keyed alike. The blanks are not available at the typical residential big box or hardware stores. And it is NEVER loaned out to service workers.
Like a pair of jumper cables, you don't loan your key, you loan yourself. Otherwise, no go.
That means the keychain has one house key, one car key for mine, one for hers, on a carabiner clip I can secure to a loop when out in the field. Gas cap key? In the car. It's locked up, why carry it to lose it? Gun safe key? In the house, where it's locked up, secure.
Not on my keychain ever.
Workplace keys? Separate keychain carried only on the clock. Not at any other time. Only stored at home, not the car should it be ransacked.
Beginning to see a trend? Tacticool loadouts start with the fundamentals of tactical application. You don't increase your risk of loss or lower your security standards.
Wallet? OMG, why do people carry every receipt they have in a wallet? Most forms of paper receipts are chemically impregnated or heat sensitive and won't last a month in a warm humid wallet.
Nope. Critical ID only as mandatory per state. Driver's license, CCW license, maybe your FOID, military ID (good discounts these days,) and whatever club cards you actually frequent on a monthly basis. Only if they are photo ID laminated. Maybe a pizza discount card. Those little keychain bar code cards can be laminated together with clear packing tape and take up the space of just one card.
Cash, done. I keep a comb in my wallet, one of those plastic nitpickers, which really gets the trash out of your hair out in the field. And doesn't trigger a metal alarm.
15 gas station cards, 25 Mall merchant charge accounts, or a treasured ticket stub to the World Series, no. Why feed the troll who finds your wallet and keeps it?
Oh yes it can happen, the latest suburban style is to carry your wallet and cell phone in your hand. I collect them off the counter constantly and run outside to return them. I answer the phone when owners call looking for them.
Maybe not so much this crowd, but it's getting worse.
Flashlight? if you are over 45, you wouldn't be allowed duty in the crow's nest at sea. Older eyes lose their overall ability to see in darkness or at distance. Our rods and cones are aging and like the rest of you, they aren't what they used to be. A flashlight to see things in out of the way corners is necessary at my job.
Pocket knife, absolutely. And you could stare at it clipped in my pocket and ask to borrow it all you want, it's not for loan. Amazing the number of people who think they can ask instead of carry one, and who cluelessly use them as prybars and screwdrivers. What you will get is a direct question what you are working on, and then I find that tool at work.
My pocket knife? From my cold dead fingers.
And that is the one you get to see, I might carry one for defensive purposes, too. Simply because I can. Free country.
I won't extend the tedium for those with reading comprehension challenges, the point is if you decide to carry it, think it thru. A lot of the stuff any guy has on him at any time is adopted casually with very little thought of the consequences. A lot of times it exposes them to more risk than it mitigates.
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