Jäger1
Member
EDC is probably "situation dictates" for the majority of people. It is quite true that wherever you live and your daily travels have a lot to do with your situation.
Two books that were on the reading list when I did my criminology degree in the 1970's (naively thinking it would aid my LEO career) were "Crime As Work" and surprisingly to me at the time "Image Of The City". The first was a book based on the concept that most criminals see the crimes they commit as their occupation, much like we see the 40 hours or so we spend/spent each week going to our jobs. Like us, they want to make their daily bread as easily, most hassle free, and least risky as possible.
The criminologist who wrote that book interviewed thousands of incarcerated criminals in multiple prisons, ranging from fraud artists to safe crackers, to the gamut of violent offenders. Within that book are a lot of lessons to remind the reader that you can minimize looking like the next jobsite for criminals. It basically detailed what criminals found attractive in victim selection and what made a situation look risky, leading to that criminal continuing to search for a safer person/place to do their work.
The other book went about exploring how individuals see the city they live in, and the daily movement patterns we form over time as we go to work, go shopping, to our churches and sources of recreation, etc.
Regardless of where you live, you can do as much to enhance your safety by addressing factors like this as you can by whatever you choose as your EDC.
The earlier post pointing out that "crime is everywhere" is accurate. It always has been.
Then the deterrent of law enforcement was removed for a lot of criminals and their crime. Now crime is everywhere even more so, now that we've had twelve years of federal governments that invited as many as 20 million Illegal Aliens to come to this country during those presidencies. They're all criminals in many respects the moment they illegally cross the border, but within their population are many, many who make part or all of their living from violent crime.
And successful working criminals, relatively safe from the occupational hazard of incarceration, motivate other working criminals who may be well outside of their group and in other areas of the state or country.
Most people think of this part of Montana as being the proverbial "safe as in church". No inner cities, no street gangs, no crackheads and street zombies in sight. And yet, the DEA here in Montana have reported that gangs like MS13 have gotten their foot in the door here in Montana inside the reservations our Heritage Folks live at. Violent crime was always a thing on the Rez going back to the time of Y2K when we bought the house here, but back then it was the usual: Natives overwhelmingly victimize Natives, just as whites overwhelmingly victimize other whites.
That paradigm is disappearing in and around the Rez, and now it is spreading off the Rez. Property crime has dramatically increased in our general area around Kalispell/Whitefish, violent crime is starting to do the same.
This is due to various reasons which I would claim and defend as being due to the increase in numbers of Illegal Aliens now in the area, and Kalispell city council deciding to provide a welcoming and supporting environment to what were called "vagrants" back in my LEO days. Then they cosplay as being shocked that people with no means of legitimate support with many being druggies, commit crimes in order to fund their food, their fun, and their drugs.
So yes, whatever you saw as good enough years ago may not seem as good now. The inverted triangle referred to as 'The Dark Figure Of Crime' still exists, but your environment and your pattern of daily life may be changing dramatically.
For me, my EDC is still the FN High Power I purchased in the early 70's when we were authorized to purchase a pistol rather than our service revolvers for the times when we were working plain clothes instead of uniform. Been carrying it unmodified (other than adding adjustable sights when I started competing in IPSC) since then; change out the springs each year, for me still good to go. No idea of high many tens of thousands of rounds I have fired through that pistol over the years.
I have well over a dozen well used handguns, most of them S&W revolvers purchased during the time I was addicted to PPC competition. The various short barreled ones would qualify for EDC, but I personally don't believe in a "carry rotation". I choose what I think is the best tool for that job and I stick with it, using the same holster and method of carry every single day.
I certainly don't and never have advocated that a service pistol is best EDC for anyone. What works for one doesn't work for all.
For me it's good: the weight on my belt since retirement is now lighter than it was during all my years of carrying a gun/guns at work. This is Montana, and anybody can be pretty casual about how they conceal, or not conceal at all. I've yet to receive a look or a comment in 20+ years of living here, carrying in a high ride holster with an untucked shirt or jacket over. The open carriers here pretty much also go unnoticed, other than by the occasional tourist who briefly stops looking at their cellphone or in the shop windows.
But eventually, with age having successfully caught up with me and the environment in this area of Montana possibly getting worse, I may find myself re-thinking my EDC. Whatever I choose at that point will probably be very similar to what I'm accustomed to after 50 years: some variant of a single action pistol, perhaps whatever at that time looks like the S&W CSX.
What I'm used to has worked so far; I may decide to replace what I use as the tool for that, but I'm not going to make wholesale changes at this stage of my life. It would take major changes in my surrounding living environment and circumstances to cause me to make major changes.
Perhaps that is what the OP sees, leading to the changes he spoke about making.
Two books that were on the reading list when I did my criminology degree in the 1970's (naively thinking it would aid my LEO career) were "Crime As Work" and surprisingly to me at the time "Image Of The City". The first was a book based on the concept that most criminals see the crimes they commit as their occupation, much like we see the 40 hours or so we spend/spent each week going to our jobs. Like us, they want to make their daily bread as easily, most hassle free, and least risky as possible.
The criminologist who wrote that book interviewed thousands of incarcerated criminals in multiple prisons, ranging from fraud artists to safe crackers, to the gamut of violent offenders. Within that book are a lot of lessons to remind the reader that you can minimize looking like the next jobsite for criminals. It basically detailed what criminals found attractive in victim selection and what made a situation look risky, leading to that criminal continuing to search for a safer person/place to do their work.
The other book went about exploring how individuals see the city they live in, and the daily movement patterns we form over time as we go to work, go shopping, to our churches and sources of recreation, etc.
Regardless of where you live, you can do as much to enhance your safety by addressing factors like this as you can by whatever you choose as your EDC.
The earlier post pointing out that "crime is everywhere" is accurate. It always has been.
Then the deterrent of law enforcement was removed for a lot of criminals and their crime. Now crime is everywhere even more so, now that we've had twelve years of federal governments that invited as many as 20 million Illegal Aliens to come to this country during those presidencies. They're all criminals in many respects the moment they illegally cross the border, but within their population are many, many who make part or all of their living from violent crime.
And successful working criminals, relatively safe from the occupational hazard of incarceration, motivate other working criminals who may be well outside of their group and in other areas of the state or country.
Most people think of this part of Montana as being the proverbial "safe as in church". No inner cities, no street gangs, no crackheads and street zombies in sight. And yet, the DEA here in Montana have reported that gangs like MS13 have gotten their foot in the door here in Montana inside the reservations our Heritage Folks live at. Violent crime was always a thing on the Rez going back to the time of Y2K when we bought the house here, but back then it was the usual: Natives overwhelmingly victimize Natives, just as whites overwhelmingly victimize other whites.
That paradigm is disappearing in and around the Rez, and now it is spreading off the Rez. Property crime has dramatically increased in our general area around Kalispell/Whitefish, violent crime is starting to do the same.
This is due to various reasons which I would claim and defend as being due to the increase in numbers of Illegal Aliens now in the area, and Kalispell city council deciding to provide a welcoming and supporting environment to what were called "vagrants" back in my LEO days. Then they cosplay as being shocked that people with no means of legitimate support with many being druggies, commit crimes in order to fund their food, their fun, and their drugs.
So yes, whatever you saw as good enough years ago may not seem as good now. The inverted triangle referred to as 'The Dark Figure Of Crime' still exists, but your environment and your pattern of daily life may be changing dramatically.
For me, my EDC is still the FN High Power I purchased in the early 70's when we were authorized to purchase a pistol rather than our service revolvers for the times when we were working plain clothes instead of uniform. Been carrying it unmodified (other than adding adjustable sights when I started competing in IPSC) since then; change out the springs each year, for me still good to go. No idea of high many tens of thousands of rounds I have fired through that pistol over the years.
I have well over a dozen well used handguns, most of them S&W revolvers purchased during the time I was addicted to PPC competition. The various short barreled ones would qualify for EDC, but I personally don't believe in a "carry rotation". I choose what I think is the best tool for that job and I stick with it, using the same holster and method of carry every single day.
I certainly don't and never have advocated that a service pistol is best EDC for anyone. What works for one doesn't work for all.
For me it's good: the weight on my belt since retirement is now lighter than it was during all my years of carrying a gun/guns at work. This is Montana, and anybody can be pretty casual about how they conceal, or not conceal at all. I've yet to receive a look or a comment in 20+ years of living here, carrying in a high ride holster with an untucked shirt or jacket over. The open carriers here pretty much also go unnoticed, other than by the occasional tourist who briefly stops looking at their cellphone or in the shop windows.
But eventually, with age having successfully caught up with me and the environment in this area of Montana possibly getting worse, I may find myself re-thinking my EDC. Whatever I choose at that point will probably be very similar to what I'm accustomed to after 50 years: some variant of a single action pistol, perhaps whatever at that time looks like the S&W CSX.
What I'm used to has worked so far; I may decide to replace what I use as the tool for that, but I'm not going to make wholesale changes at this stage of my life. It would take major changes in my surrounding living environment and circumstances to cause me to make major changes.
Perhaps that is what the OP sees, leading to the changes he spoke about making.
