The recommended emergency 72 hour "Go Kit" here in DC as recommended by the local govt. does not include a knife:

http://eic.rrc.dc.gov/eic/cwp/view.asp?a=1272&q=568088&cat=3

It appears that they are following the recommendations of the Dept of Homeland Security, which also does not include a blade of any type in their recommended kit:

http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/checklist.pdf

I would find a blade to be one of the essential items necessary for a emergency kit. Is this an oversight, or do they view a knife as a liability?

Other: they want to scare the public, not arm it.

Why would I bug out with a fire extinguisher?

They probably figure you will end up at a shelter, where they will take your knife away.

I work with a group that works at shelters. I've been told that I would not be allowed to bring my leatherman into a shelter. My answer was "I guess that shelter doesn't get radio comms then, as I need tools to setup the radios"

I was basically told - keep it in your pocket, don't use it where shelter residents can see it, and we'll look the other way

Wait, wait, wait.

Didn't we just have someone (sorry, I'm bad with names. You know, the guy...) deliver a heated speech about how nobody is going to take anything away at shelters? Does this mean they were, well, wrong?

Only an idiot would not carry a cutting tool of some sort in an emergency kit. Of the things in my EDC I use the most, a knife is in the top 3. When I'm on an airplane, I carry medic shears instead of a knife, so I can still cut stuff.

In fact, my EDC for NYC is basically Flashlight, Red Bandanna, Pocket Knife (Swiss Army or Leatherman) 1 liter of water, a Blackberry Smartphone, $300 in cash, an AT&T 60 minute calling card and a sharpie. In my laptop backpack is a mini-trauma kit with Nitrile Gloves, plenty of Gauze, Medic Shears, burn gel, some medicines (ibuprofin, immodium) and adhesive bandages.

Y'know, I am thinking that the government probably ain't the best provider of security in a crisis situation. Were I to be part of a community I felt comfortable with, I wouldn't mind donating a bit towards establishing a shelter of our own. I am quite certain that a well organized and intelligent group of private citizens with more immediate and localized common interests would be well capable of coming up with a much better shelter system given time than could any government agency I've ever dealt with.

People have gotten too used to letting big government take care of them. We've gotten lazy and greedy, and unless we are all gonna build our Burt Gummer fortresses where we can hermitage away from the rest of society, I gotta think at some point responsible men and women are gonna have to step up and take matters into their own hands, or else expect to get fleeced and put out into the cold on a regular basis, or maybe to the slaughterhouse.

Or maybe I am just being naive to think that people these days are willing to invest in a little common good.

One thing's for certain, the federal and often the state governments have a different agenda than protecting the interests of the common man, or small community. They couldn't care less, and they demonstrated such for the past 50 years with their ridiculous policy making.

If you want to survive, you'd best not rely on some bureaucrat to decide how you are going to, or even if you get to. That is just too close to the Commandant at Auschwitz deciding who goes to the shower and who gets to spend another day hungry for me.

IMHO the government is planning on having you make it to the shelters. There, where food, personal space, hygene etc..., may all be in short supply tempers on the other hand may be in abundance. By disarming everybody, there will be no violence. Just like in D.C. The is no firearm violence/murder because there are no guns allowed.....right?
Not trying to be political, but the fact is that government has a way of burying their collective heads in the sand when it comes to armed citizens sometimes.

-Bill Liptak

Idiot here (just temporary I assure you).

Before we jump up and down and decry our guvmint, can we brainstorm a few common scenarios where a knife or other edged cutting tool (defn: the kind of thing the TSA likes to take away) would be useful after an emergency occurs and the general urban population of DC grabs their Go Kits?

Disclaimer: I'm a recent Red Cross shelter volunteer with no working experience in a shelter at the moment, but the protocol is pretty clearly no guns or knives inside a shelter. Maybe this just prepares the population for that scenario, at the expense of using a knife after an emergency but before they take shelter. Basically I would recommend at least 95% of any urban environment to head for a Red Cross shelter if they could find one, assuming they have no where else to go, because otherwise their odds of death and injury go up as the temperature goes down etc.

But what are those knife scenarios exactly? Keeping in mind we're talking evacuation from the DC metropolitan area.

I'm mentally wandering around DC now, and finding not alot to cut or slice. I have a sandwich or meat so far, if someone gave them to me, but the knife is actually not *necessary* to eat those. And for purposes of the mental exercise, gutting and cleaning a deer or other animal is not very common in DC, at least among the urban population of folks who don't already eat rats and squirrels every day. And amateur tracheotomies in the service of dying pedestrians are off the table as well. There's some argument that having a knife can aid in personal protection. Help me out a little here, I'm not being imaginative enough. I don't EDC a knife, so I'm missing out on a level of ingenuity that a DC person will employ after an emergency.

I'm pro 2nd Amendment, pro carry, and for changing DC's laws. Thank goodness the Supreme Court ruled DC's gun ban as unconstitutional. However, I agree that firearms and knives do not belong in a shelter situation - at least by those being sheltered.

Setting aside the argument someone will make regarding what the staff vs the sheltered can do, let me explain. Those needing use of the shelter are the unprepared. Anyone who made preparations can either take care of themselves, they left before the storm arrived (if that was the case), or they were unavoidably and seriously hurt and end up in a hospital or dead.

The prepared have taken the time to prepare themselves mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually (if they are the type) for the unexpected. The unprepared are the ones 99.9% of the time in the shelters. They are also unprepared for catastrophes mentally. Stress and emotions are over the top. When they get stuck in a room with tens, hundreds or thousands like them, that is another disaster waiting to happen. Particularly if someone has a weapon. In normal times they may be cool headed. But under stress and panic, like those observed in the Super Dome during Katrina, people aren't rational and emotion takes over and people get hurt unnecessarily.

It is not a perfect system by any means. Arguably a poor system, especially Katrina. But it is the system now in place and it has worked in many instances; although on a smaller scale. The stark point is, if you put a bunch of unprepared people together, more stupid things will happen. When people become more educated and prepare themselves to avoid these types of situations, like you, they will take it upon themselves to carry a knife for its usefulness. I do and everyone should. The prepared don't need a government organization to tell them what they need to carry in some list. No one will have to take it away their knife in a shelter because they will never have to be there in the first place.

My .02