What is an every day carry really when you get down to it?

[Tantalus]

Turn out my pockets and you will find...

Wallet , torch, penknife, lighter. Also hankie, poo bags, dog treats. this is EDC.

Drawer queens, TEOTWAWKI survival gear, zombie knives, shotguns, emergency tents etc etc etc are clearly not EDC.

I have the same stuff in my pockets in the high street as I do down at the river, in the garden or on top of a mountain. Every day.

 

[TeeDee]

I believe if I may ,and potentially offer a coup de grace to the thread, the term EDC has its main origins in the freedom loving US of A where it is more pertinent to the chosen concealed or open carry revolver/pistol firearm of choice for the day.

I think like many amercianisms we have 'borrowed' it. Bloody Limeys.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I believe if I may ,and potentially offer a coup de grace to the thread, the term EDC has its main origins in the freedom loving US of A where it is more pertinent to the chosen concealed or open carry revolver/pistol firearm of choice for the day.

I think like many amercianisms we have 'borrowed' it. Bloody Limeys.

This will drag the thread far off topic... but here goes...

That famous amendment about the right to bear arms refers to the government not infringing the right of the citizen to do so.

Step onto private property, such as a shopping mall, and the owner of that property can apply any restriction whatsoever. For instance, when I made first trip to the US and went into a mall in South Carolina, I saw signs "no concealed weapons", implying that a pistol worn openly on a belt would be acceptable.

And that's beside state laws, county and municipal ordinances.

In the US, rules concerning the carrying of firearms are complicated and very greatly from state to state, county to county, town to town, and you really need to know exactly where you are going to go during the day to be able to strictly comply.

 

[Pattree]

If baring arms is so bloody important they should just roll up their sleeves and carry on - every day if they want to.

I regularly do it but not every day.

Edited to hyphenate and I feel all the better for it.

 

[C_Claycomb]

@Keith_Beef
Meh....I visited a gun show once in Kentucky where they were asking everyone if they were carrying any guns on the way into the show....apparently bringing your own gun to the show was frowned on!

As for the EDC being originally about guns, I disagree. While folk in the US may include a pistol as part of their EDC gear, they are far too much in love with knives, torches, and tools of personal protection to have ever limited EDC to guns alone. Actually, it would be tricky to track down when the three letter acronym first appeared vs the idea itself of people (mostly men) carrying a regular collection of tools, implements and accessories. I expect the latter could go back thousands of years.

 

[Paul_B]

A former boss went to Texas on business and the client took him and his colleague to a restaurant. There was a cloakroom equiped to take coats, hats (10 dollar kind), spurs, guns and rifles. My boss got asked if he had a gun to hand in and despite being a former shooter (game bird and wildfowl mostly back in the day when you could have fittings to your gun to take multiple cartridges to rapid reload apparently) he obviously had none. Which got raised eyebrows. As to the spurs I kid you not, guys were handing them in apparently having just got out of their trucks.

I am afraid to say that I will never quite understand a Texan's relationship with guns. It would not surprise me to find out that Texas is a particular outlier even in USA on such matters and habits. I have heard just too many things from Texans themselves that I used to deal with to think that they are as the rest of the USA population. No offence meant but if spurs are a modern EDC or everyday wear in a city or built up area then it feels a totally different world to me.

I think things are going round and round a but here. I also accept that my views don't always come across clearly. My view is that EDC is what is always in your pocketses when you leave your house or accomodation. Assuming you do not carry it all from when you get up to when you go back to bed of course. For me I pick up that EDC when I leave the house. However there is an auxilliary stack of items that I add as and when I feel it is needed. Then on top of this there are tools for the job I am going out to do which is another layer on my carry.

So to me a lot of what is put in online EDC lists tends to be one of the outer layers of carry not the actual EDC items. I think things like tactical pens,torches ,etc are among these outer layers of carry not EDC to me. In our modern age I see EDC as what you always leave the house with and in some ways all you need to cope with things in the modern society we live in. As in means to pay for things such as getting home. Means to get into my home as in keys. Glasses as I can't see well without them. Tissues (not hankies as they are germ vectors IME) as I have allergies and never quite know when a bad allergy attack will send my nose into full tap on mode!! I do not treat my mobile phone as part of this EDC as I do not always take it with me. I sometimes prefer not to be contactable without you actually coming to find me!

I think in pure etymological terms EDC must be what you always carry when you leave the house actually on your person. Everything else that might get confused with this EDC term is outer layer carries and IMHO should be listed as such according to purpose they are carried for. EDC is too easy a term to put on auxiliary items. Perhaps they need a term just as easy to use that might be more relevent but I cannot think of what that would be. EDC kind of became very common so "EEE, DEEE, CEEE" rolls off the tongue so nicely.

 

[TeeDee]

Thats the things with different Cultures.. you must acknowledge they may not be for you. But they are for some.

 

[Pattree]

I had never heard the term EDC until I came here. (Neither had I seen SAK, FAC or PSK. I’ve been camping for nearly seventy years and managed without the acronym which I still don’t use.

I carry some stuff routinely.

[checks that doesn’t create a rude acronym]

 

[Paul_B]

Thats the things with different Cultures.. you must acknowledge they may not be for you. But they are for some.

Oh I know. Not sure it is culture more a practical creation of the founders to prevent many of the old worlde issues with Monarchies. Societal and about the society the founders wanted to create. However I do think that they did not foresee the issues they created in more modern times. Intent and much, much later event possibly doesn't match. However I would never say any of that to a Texan!!!

PS I have experience of that in some ways. I had a good half hour comversation with an engineer in his late 20s or early 30s from Texas born and bred about work issues. Of that call the business lasted 5 minutes. The rest was a friday afternoon banter with a customer (on my side that is). He was coming up to the end of his working week and it had been a hard one. So he expressed thee desire to go home, have a few beers and shoot a few cans in his backyard. He said that he bet I was looking forward to that. He did not seem able to understand the principles of gun control. As in really could not understand it!!!! As a graduate engineer and actually very intelligent he simply could not understand it on a conceptual or practical level. A very nice guy indeed and I loved his difficulties in that chat. He educated me as much as I tried to him.

I love it more than it worries me TBH. I mean my grandad grew up with a civil war musket or was it a blunderbus leant fully loaded on the front veranda of his family home as a kid. That was Michigan in the back of beyond (actually across the bay from Green Bay of Packers fame. Another world, another reality and nothing wrong with that.

 

[Pattree]

My list has just gone up by one tick tool.

I know that sounds like an engineering tolerance.

……… as in “one tick tool and a gnat’s knacker.”

 

[Tantalus]

Although why some people insist on adding their keys (car, house etc) to the list of things in their EDC is beyond me.

Saying "I take my keys with me" is like adding "I also wear underwear".

 

[TeeDee]

Fresnel lens in my wallet has been a useful addition for reading small print. Lots of things seem to me at least be in small print and my arms can't get any longer

 

[Pattree]

Although why some people insist on adding their keys (car, house etc) to the list of things in their EDC is beyond me.

Saying "I take my keys with me" is like adding "I also wear underwear".

…….. because we thought that EDC meant Every Day Carry

 

[Keith_Beef]

Saying "I take my keys with me" is like adding "I also wear underwear".

You've never heard of "going commando"?

 

[demographic]

As far as I can work out from seeing EDC threads it's all about the Instagram pictures.
Knife, money clip, expensive watch, possibly on a treestump or bit of reindeer hide.
If it's in America theres maybe a Glock which looks dead handy to cart around when you pop into Bargain Booze for a couple of bottles of McEwans Champion.

 

[Chris]

As far as I can work out from seeing EDC threads it's all about the Instagram pictures.
Knife, money clip, expensive watch, possibly on a treestump or bit of reindeer hide.
If it's in America theres maybe a Glock which looks dead handy to cart around when you pop indo Bargain Booze for a couple of bottles of McEwans Champion.

The one that gets me is when they have a single coin in its own individual coin pouch.

I understand sentimental objects, but some of these people have a coin in a single coin pouch just because they want something to EDC.

 

[demographic]

The one that gets me is when they have a single coin in its own individual coin pouch.

I understand sentimental objects, but some of these people have a coin in a single coin pouch just because they want something to EDC.

The coin is to toss into the air and put a hole through with the Glock.

 

[TeeDee]

The one that gets me is when they have a single coin in its own individual coin pouch.

I understand sentimental objects, but some of these people have a coin in a single coin pouch just because they want something to EDC.

Bit like middle aged men wishfully carrying that condom they've had since their teenage years.

#nostalgia.

 

[Chris]

Bit like middle aged men wishfully caring that condom they've had since their teenage years.

#nostalgia.

Any day now…

 

[Kadushu]

Kill 2 birds with one stone and store your coin inside the condom!

I see "EDC" as a fashion, typified by Best Damn EDC on YouTube. Yes there are practical reasons behind carrying certain things but what makes it a fashion is the focus on aesthetics and bragging rights. Judging and rating people's photos of their pocket dumps (nothing to do with defaecation) is really the pinnacle of EDC w**kery to me.