I love playing with my first aid kits.
I have a gun in case of emergency. The likelyhood, in my experience, of needing first aid for an emergency is MUCH more likely. I have used my hiking FAK a couple times, once for a fairly serious sprain in the boundary waters in MN (those not familiar, think miles of canoeing then miles of hiking, then miles of canoeing etc, no one around, its amazing)
I have used my bigger car FAK twice. Once was a fender bender I drove by, lady wasn't wearing a seat belt and didn't yield at a merge, guy in front did... Had a pretty nice cut on her head from banging the windshield. Cleaned and dressed before the paramedics arrived. Second time it was used was less fortunate, much bigger accident on the highway, my wife and I stopped (I always stop if I don't have my kiddos) and did what we could to help. Very bad accident. Thankfully there were medically trained people who stopped too, but they used my first aid kit to treat people until Paramedics arrived.
Most Important things to remember:
- Defer to medical professionals, get out of the way if they know more than you
- If you use something out of your FAK, replace it. It sucks when you need a gauze pad, or immodium
and it's not there because you used it last time.
- If having ANY gun in a gun fight is better, I would argue having ANY FAK is better than none. Channel your inner MacGyver!
I have never used my gun for an emergency, thank God. Except for those deer that were in dire need of being eaten! And the varmints that were desperate to be stopped from committing acts of vandalism on my gardens...