What Should Be in Your First-Aid Kit

You would never rely on a defensive tool like a firearm or pepper spray without knowing how to use it. The same goes for medical gear, as well as all your self-defense tools and accessories. The time to learn about your first-aid kit contents is now, before you need them.

At the start of every day on the range, Rob Pincus opens up his medical kit and shows the shooters exactly what’s in it, including where the tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, pressure dressing, and other contents are.

First-Aid Kit Contents

Rob has received a new medical kit that’s vacuum packed, with the contents listed on the outside. The thinking may be that more people will carry it if it is as compact as possible. But carrying the kit without knowing what the contents look like, or even if the kit contains further packaging that has to be opened, is not a good idea.

After the gunshot wound is too late to familiarize yourself with the contents of your medical kit.

This is a different concern than knowing how to apply a tourniquet, pressure dressing, and hemostatic agent. If you buy a medical kit containing these items, make sure you know how to use them and have practiced doing so. This video is about knowing how to open and employ the exact medical kit you are carrying.

Opening the Pack

Rob believes it’s worth opening the vacuum pack and losing that extra compactness in exchange for learning the exact first-aid kit contents. You may even have to buy another kit, but this is a fair trade-off too.

When Rob opens this kit, he discovers a second layer of vacuum packing he will have to open in case of emergency. This is not ideal because when under stress, using fine motor skills to open tight packaging will be more challenging.