Review: Sunshine Safety Emergency Medical Gear

So you’ve decided to take charge of your personal safety and carry a defensive pistol with you wherever and whenever you can. That’s great. Understanding that the intended victim is always the first person to arrive at a crime scene and then doing something about it is an essential part of living an independent life. 

The same is also true for other kinds of emergencies. I lived many years in Arizona, and the shoulders of the Interstate highways there are dotted with black patches of burnt concrete where the blazing heat had turned a vehicle into a “carbeque,” so having a fire extinguisher with me as I drove around seemed like a good idea. 

I had been carrying a pistol for quite some time until it dawned on me that having emergency medical gear with me would be a good idea as well. I was (and am) taking training to make sure I come out on top of an unavoidable violent encounter, but I realized that the bad guy might get a vote on how many rounds might go downrange, and some of those might hit me or a loved one, leading to a life-or-death medical emergency playing out right in front of me. 

There was, however, the sticky problem of carrying emergency medical gear on me, and not near me. Thanks to modern concealed carry gear, I could carry my pistol with me everyday, but finding a solution to discreetly carry even basic trauma gear like a tourniquet on my person is and was a challenge. 

Trauma Gear For The Rest Of Us

This is, until I stumbled across Sunshine Safety at a local gun show. Most trauma medical gear is designed for use by EMTs and paramedics, which is good, but people like that don’t have to field embarrassing questions like “Why do you have a tourniquet on your belt?” It’s assumed that they have that gear as part of their job, much like police officers have a pistol with them. The products from Sunshine Safety are up to those standards, but they can also be used by people like me, who want to be safe but aren’t paid to be a first responder. 

First up is the easy to use, easy to carry BRIK BRD. This is nothing more than an elastic nylon loop with either a metal clip or MOLLE straps on the back which can hold a marking pen, a pair of trauma shears and your choice of tourniquet. I’ve carried the BRIK BRD on my support side waist for about a month now, and it’s about the same size and shape as a double-stack pistol magazine, meaning if you can carry a spare magazine on you, you can carry basic trauma gear. The only issue I’ve found with this setup is that the marking pen fell out a few hours into wearing it, which is no big deal as that is a non-critical component. Having a tourniquet on you is important for the same reasons as having a defensive pistol on you: Time is of the essence when lead is flying through the air, and it’s of the essence when blood is spilled and your life might be ending quickly. 

Bigger Kits For Bigger Emergencies

For larger emergencies, Sunshine Safety makes the BRIK Micro. BRIK stands for Bleeding Resource Individual Kit, and while the “Micro” in the name suggests a smaller size, it still has necessities like gloves, trauma shears, compressed gauze and a tourniquet in a small (6.5 inch x 3.5 inch x 2 inch) package. This size makes it ideal to toss into your range bag or glove compartment as a backup to the tourniquet you have on you. On the rear of the BRIK Micro are MOLLE loops to attach the kit to a bag or vest as well as a belt loop to carry in your person.  

The full-size BRIK is a no-compromise solution to emergency medical gear. The 6.5 inch x 3.5 inch x 2 inch size of this package is probably too big for everyday carry, but it is ideal to toss into a range bag, backpack or go-bag. Inside is everything that’s inside the Micro version and other useful gear like chest seals, Quik-Clot, pressure bandages and a mylar blanket to treat shock. The tourniquet is in a separate pouch on the outside, and everything else slides out with the tug of one of the end straps.

This brings up one of the nicest things I’ve noticed about all these Sunshine Safety products is how well-thought out they are, especially when it comes to how the various components are stored in each kit. Having all the medical gear in the world will do you little good if you can’t access it quickly when it’s needed, and both the BRIK and the BRIK Micro are easy to deploy, with all the content inside right in front of you and easy to access. 

Protecting your life and the lives of your loved ones means keeping them safe from traumatic injury as well as violent crime, and a small trauma kit like the ones offered by Sunshine Safety help you accomplish that goal.