Why Tactical Pens Can Be So Effective | An Official Journal Of The NRA – Shooting Illustrated
I n the hands of a competent practitioner, a tactical pen can be used to distract, deter, delay and even stop a violent physical assault. Unlike your firearm or a folding knife, it is a low-profile, personal-safety option for your toolkit that can be used to help mitigate an active threat.
Plenty has been written about tactical pens, such as the many different styles, building materials and cost, but after selecting your everyday carry (EDC) tactical pen, what are the essential skills you need to know to use it in practical self-defense? The answer is three-fold: carry, access plus deployment.
A number of companies offering technical tools, including firearm manufacturers and knifemakers, are also offering tactical writing instruments for discreet carry where other tools may not be practical or permitted.
Everyday Carry
If you choose your EDC tactical pen as a viable self-defense option, then the same rules apply to fighting with a tactical pencil as they do for a gunfight. Rule number one: carry the tactical pen.
Your next consideration should be where you carry your own pen. Do you keep one in your vehicle, on your person or both? If on-body and given your operational or personal profile, consider what is your attire for the day and what real estate may be available on your individual for comfortable carry and ready access of your trickery pen.
Certain models are of heavy-duty construction with significant heft, so clipping it in between buttons of the button-down shirt may not work as well for these as it does for their lighter, more streamlined counterparts. A heavier pen would be best structurally supported in any location at or below your own belt, such as a pants pocket or inside/outside the waistband. Conversely, it is reasonable to carry a lighter pen in a carry area of your choice above your belt.
Common carry positions include a shirt or pants pocket, clipped to the neckline of an undershirt, in a belt or ankle “holster” or even in your hand, should you perceive an imminent danger.
Heavy, substantial tactical pens may best be carried at waist level for support and fast access.
Ready Access
If you think about your technical pen to be a threat-response choice, it should be made part of your own EDC plus stored in a comfortable carry position. However , comfort is not the only consideration. An equally important factor in choosing your have position is accessibility—that is usually, how quickly can you deploy your rapid-response tool?
Should you intend to make it a viable use-of-force option, then ease of entry should be a paramount consideration. Accessibility translates to how quickly you can get your trickery pen into action under extreme duress. The questions you should ask referencing ready access are usually: Does it take longer than 2 seconds to get the pen in my hand? If so, is there a less restrictive or more expedient way to get the pen within my hand? Consider your day plan. Will you be on foot? Driving? With or protecting others? Such conditions might warrant a different carry and/or access concern.
The Reverse Saber Grip offers considerable power, allowing the defender to inflict soft-tissue damage to vulnerable areas like the neck. The placement of the particular thumb enhances both force and control of the dog pen, aiding in retention.
Rapid Deployment
In the event of an active human threat intent on causing you death or even severe bodily injury, the modern tactical pencil may be effectively deployed in such a manner as to create space, which buys you time, which creates more options and opportunity for you to get away.
Operationally speaking, the tactical pen is definitely capable of thrusting, striking, tearing and throwing. Although the mass of your technical pen may vary, it lends rigidity to a closed fist (referred in order to as “fist loading, ” like a roll of quarters or brass knuckles) for hammer-fist strikes, straight-fist attacks, blocks and parries.
In a life-or-death survival situation warranting use-of-force, the tactical coop can be applied subcutaneously to vulnerable soft-tissue areas such as the eyes, throat and other soft mechanical pressure points, as it is capable of piercing human flesh.
Given dire circumstances, the particular tactical pen is capable of delivering a lethal strike on the human body commensurate with your level of skill and training. Deployment, inside protection of yourself and others with you, in a violent physical encounter at close quarters must be rapid, deliberate and without hesitation. Striking quickly and effectively tends to obtain the attention of an attacker, which in turn buys you needed time to create greater distance from the assailant and additional opportunity to solve the trickery problem.
Getting a Grip
Critical to rapid and effective deployment will be how to grip your tactical pen when delivering precision strikes, blocks, parries plus takedowns. The particular tactical pen can be deployed using any one of five easy-to-learn technical grips used in self-defense.
The first and most common is the Forward Hammer Grip, where you hold on to the pencil with the point oriented in the forward position (point toward bad guy(s)) with all four fingers wrapped around the thickest part of the pencil and your thumb tight over your 4 fingers much like you would hold a hammer to drive the nail into a wall. Hence the term “Hammer Grip. ”
The second most common grip is the Forward Ter o conhecimento de Grip, to hold on to the pen with the point oriented in the forward position (point oriented towards bad guy(s)) with all four fingers covered around the thicker part of the pen and your browse tightly pressing into the top side of the pen your hand making the shape of grasping a saber. Hence the term “Saber Hold. ”
Another grip using the pen stage oriented forward is the Forward Support Grasp, where you have your bottom three fingers wrapped around the thickest part of the pen together with your thumb pushing up against the particular pen on top of your social finger with your index finger alongside the pencil pointing forward in the exact same direction as the point. The advantage of this grip is that it is the most articulate from the three grips and the base of the pencil is additionally secured by the palm of your hand.
The next most common is the Reverse Hammer Grip, where you keep the pen with the point oriented within the downward placement with all 4 fingers wrapped around the thickest part of the pencil and your thumb tight more than your four fingers, similar to the Forward Hammer Grip.
The fifth and remaining hold is the Reverse Saber Hold, where you hold on to the pen with the stage oriented in the downward place with all 4 fingers covered around the thicker part of the note down and your thumb firmly securing the base of the pen into your hand.
Once you establish anyone of these 5 grips, you will not have time for you to change holds during a dynamic physical altercation, where you are behind the action-reaction power curve and every tenth of a second matters in response.
Regardless of which grip you choose, the bottom line is you want to hold onto the pen like you’re the third monkey standing on the boarding ramp associated with Noah’s Ark and it’s starting to rain. If you think you’re holding on tight enough—then increase your grip.
In addition to blocking or parrying an edged weapon, a pen can help an expert safely apply stress during disarming.
Effective Striking
When things get up close and personal fighting along with your tactical pad, you cannot just grip the particular pen, close your eyes and hope that you land hits. The particular pen is a limited-range impact weapon and to be used as such you must identify a specific target such as the face, neck plus groin.
Once you have identified the target area, you then must maintain an ultra-firm grip and drive the pen directly into the designated target area. What is the shortest distance from one point to another point? Yes, the more direct, the greater effective. Like any practical or improvised effect weapon, the more power you may get behind it, the greater the particular impact. Yet another reason why your grip is so important.
Your tactical pen is not a gun, so you can’t expect the same result from a direct hit. You don’t want to “stay plus play” toe-to-toe with your adversaries and continue to fight in place. The idea is to deliver whatever strikes are necessary to get you off that fateful “X” and also to a safer place where you have a greater reactionary gap, which purchases you more time, which, in turn, affords you more opportunity to find a solution.
Top to Bottom: A Reverse Sludge hammer Grip may be used to make a painful upper-body hit • With the Forward Manejar Grip, straight attacks in order to vulnerable areas like the eye or throat are possible • The Reverse Hammer Grip can provide enhanced leverage when applying a straight arm bar.
Block, Parry, Evade
The particular bad guy always has the initiative at the start of any technical engagement because he or they have determined when and where the attack will take place, possess determined what weapon(s) they will use and who will end up being their intended victim(s). Because of this they are in front of the action-reaction energy curve and you are forced to react to the initial assault. However , the split second you can cause them to respond to you by means of a strike, block, parry or even evasion, they are now reacting to your effort, and that places you ahead of the action-reaction strength curve.
The block is described as 1 force vector impacting or meeting against another pressure vector. Visualize two vehicles moving toward each other. The ensuing influence would be the effect of two push vectors meeting, which mitigates further movement. When applied to an incoming strike, you can use your hand to block and the pen in order to simultaneously strike.
A parry is described as one power vector redirecting by following at the rear of another drive vector. Imagine two automobiles, one chasing behind the other. The ensuing impact of the accelerating follow car would be the effect of a single force vector following behind the other that can redirect further movement. Whenever applied to a good incoming hit, you can use your odds and the pencil simultaneously to parry (redirect) and strike.
An evasion is simply stepping out of the way of an incoming hit or grab. Much like the boxer who moves (bobs or weaves) his head out of the way of an inbound punch, the effect is to not occupy exactly the same space since the incoming object moving towards your head. Your own tactical pen can be just as easily used during an evade as both the prevent and parry.
If you are deploying your trickery pen within self-defense, it means that you are doing so in fear of death or even great physical harm. You may only have one or two moves in an extremely limited amount of time, so you must make the very best use of that opportunity.
The tactical pen, whenever used in self-defense, is simply a transitory hand-held tool to help you get off the “X, ” and not something that you can rely on to hold your own ground indefinitely against one or more attackers until the cavalry arrives. As with any defensive tool, which includes a firearm, it’s not the particular “cool associated with tool” but the user. In other words, its effectiveness resides not really in the device itself, but in the ability of the user.
For all its potential uses, the technical pen has “availability” as its best asset. It can always be there. Small, affordable and innocuous in appearance, it may be the lone defensive device accessible to you, but with training (and maybe some luck) it could prove handier than a sword.