Hi everyone. Welcome back to my channel. If you're brand new here, I'm Sta and this is my channel. She equips herself. And today I'm going to take you on some errands with me and along the way I'm going to be sharing some of my favorite situational awareness tips.
Before we head out, I wanted to show you how I'm carrying my gun today because this is a very normal day-to-Day outfit for me, especially if I'm going to be running around all day, I walk the dog earlier in the woods, I have to go to the bank, I have to send out some packages, go to the store. So this is who I'm carrying. Today I have my Alexa Athletica leggings on. One reason I love these is there's a holster so I can carry my gun right in my leggings. That's my shield. And my extra magazine is in the other pocket.
So this is how I carry my extra magazine. This is called a neo mag. You've probably heard me talk about it a billion times. It just clips to your magazine with a magnet and then you can put it in a pocket and not have to worry about it Moving around. I do have a discount code for these. I will link that below. These are awesome and life-changing, but I put it in the other pocket. Both these front pockets actually have multiple layers, so I can clip that in there and then hide the clip with another layer of material. So it just helps it conceal a little more. Even under this thin workout shirt, my concealment is pretty good and that's something I might've been worried about when I first started carrying, but not something I'm really concerned with anymore. I don't think that people would notice.
Anyway. I'm also carrying my pepper spray. This is by the brand palm, one of my favorite pepper sprays ever because of how easy it is to carry and it's really effective stuff. And also it's my favorite color and my spider co little pocket knife. This is probably one of my favorite pocket knives because of how small and light it is, but it's also very sharp and I can use it to cut things with open mail, whatever. So I'm put those back in my pocket and I like to carry my cell phone in my other pocket on the other side in case I need to dial 9 1 1 while I have a tool in this hand. So that goes back in there and I'm also using a backpack instead of a purse. I like to take this along with me instead of a purse just because it keeps my hands free in case I do need to access any of my tools. I don't have to worry about what I would do with my purse. So this little backpack is from the north face. I got it 10 years ago I think, and it's just served me really well. It's smaller than a regular sized backpack, so it's easy to just throw on. I have all my essentials in there, my wallet, my tourniquet, all this stuff you need day to day. So let's, let's get going. We have a lot to do today.
A lot of people also ask me how the gun feels when I'm sitting down in the car. So in this holster you can see that the muzzle of my gun is barely hitting my leg right here. So this is very comfortable because it's not digging into my leg. Tip number one, always lock your doors right when you get in your vehicle.
I think that many times we think that a car is like a safe space where no one can harm you or maybe you haven't really thought about that before, but if you lock your doors, that will stop someone from opening your door and taking you out or them getting in. It's a very good practice to do. The second you shut your door, lock it and keep it locked until you get out and then lock it again. But that's something really simple and a very easy habit that you can get into. So make sure that every time you get in your car, you lock the door. Some cars have a feature where they'll lock automatically once you start moving, once you put the car in drive, but I recommend doing it before that because sometimes we get in our cars and we want to look at our phones or do whatever and that time passes and someone can get in your car without you wanting them to. So make sure you just lock the door right when you get in your car.
Okay, one trick I like to do is to use windows as a mirror so I can see there's a lady walking behind me in that window, even though I'm not turning around, I can see her. So as you're walking down the street, if you glance at the window next to you, you can see behind you and across the street without actually having to look. See that Just a really simple trick. You can use car windows as mirrors like that window across the street. I can see what's going on across the street behind me. So use windows as mirrors. That's one of my favorite things to do when I'm walking out and about so that I can see what's going on behind me without actually having to turn my whole body around. So funny story, as I was walking into the bank just now, there was an older gentleman going inside directly in front of me and he had a Second Amendment guns shirt on, and I told him I liked his shirt and he said, I thought you were going to say the opposite because we live in Massachusetts and that's probably what's expected.
But seeing a gun shirt on him did make me look for a gun on his body. So if you like to wear shirts that advertise that you carry a gun, I would advise against that because you don't want to let people know what you have on your body, so just try to be a little less obvious if you carry firearms. Yeah, that's it. It's hot. Okay, I'm in a parking lot right now, so I don't want to stay on here and chat too much. It's hard to be aware of your surroundings when you're focused on a camera. So we're going to go into Target right now. I just need to grab a couple things and while we're in there, I'm going to be looking for exits. Not in a frantic way, but every time you go into a new space, you should know where the exits are in case something happens. So the fastest way out.
It's funny how fast people's mood changes once the sun comes out, especially living in New England. I talked to like four people today, which is crazy, and they were all in good moods. Since Covid, we haven't really been talking to each other. And I had a little small talk with some people today and it was nice. Everyone's in a good mood. It's 75 out right now, which is crazy. So exciting. Make it a habit when someone's walking by you to glance at their hands because if they have something like a knife or some sort of weapon, or even if their hands are balled up into a fist, that's a pre attack indicator as it's called, and it'll just give you a clue as to what they're up to if they have nothing in their hands or they have a phone in their hands, whatever. But I'm going to link to a video down below of this woman who was walking down the sidewalk with a giant kitchen knife and just stabbing people and no one noticed that she was walking around with a giant knife in her hands. Being aware of what's in people's hands will help to keep you safe. It's just a good habit to get into, glance at their hands because if they have some sort of tool they're going to use against you, you'll see it. My next tip is a really tough one for a lot of us I know.
Just imagine the situation with me. You're in line at a store, say Market Basket on a weekend, and the line is super long and you're going to be waiting, and so what do you do? You do this.
But when you do that, you can't see what's going on around you. And I know it's really hard to not pull out your phone while you're waiting in line or doing something that you think is boring, but it's really important, especially when you're out in public to pay attention to what's going on around you. So if you catch yourself doing that and I catch myself doing this, sometimes just remind yourself to put your phone away, and the more you do it, the more natural it will be to just not pull out your phone when you're waiting in line. I know it's tough, especially for us millennials, but it's really important when you're out in public to know what's going on around you and to be paying attention so that you can see if something goes wrong.
If you like to go out to eat or go out to the movies or just go out in general. One thing you want to start doing, especially if you carry a gun and you're a self defender, someone who wants to be paying attention to their surroundings and be able to get out of a bad situation, then you can put yourself in the best position possible for wherever you're sitting. So for example, if I go out to dinner with my friends, I'm going to want to sit somewhere at our table where I can see the majority of the restaurant and where the door is so I can see if anybody comes in just so that I can be more aware of what's going on around me. If you sit with your back to the rest of the restaurant, then you obviously can't see what's going on around you, and if something happens, you'll be a little bit slower to react because you didn't see it.
So if you go to dinner with your significant other and you carry a gun and they don't, or you have a more defensive mindset than they do and you're more prepared to handle a situation, then you might want to take the seat that faces the door and let them have the other seat. Or if you both carry a gun, you might have to do rock paper, scissors or something to get the good seat. Situational awareness and just being aware of what's going on around you is a great way to help you stay out of bad situations. We don't ever want to have to use our guns as responsible gun owners, so it's important to know what's going on around you. So if something's going wrong, you know about it and you kind of develop a plan and can get yourself out of that situation before you have to be involved.
Hopefully that's the ideal situation. A lot of the times an attack will happen within seconds and you don't have a say in when it happens. You just have time to react. But if you're paying attention to your surroundings, it gives you a better chance of staying out of a bad situation than if you just weren't paying attention at all. I really hope you all enjoyed this video. Hopefully it was helpful and maybe you learn something new or I reminded you of something you forgot. Please make sure you subscribe to my channel because it really helps me out if you enjoy my content. And make sure to thumbs up this video if you liked it. Leave me a comment below and remember, I always add links of things that I mentioned in the video holsters. I use the video of the woman with a knife. I'll link that below as well, the one that I talked about. So make sure you check the description box for all the links that are related to this video, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye. Nila says, thanks for watching.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rijQisQqVyg
Credit: Stavroula MacQuarrie, She Equips Herself