Wow! I lost my login and password to this forum for a few days and look at what happened? :-)
Thanks for all your posts. I've enjoyed reading them.
For me, again it really all depends on what you're doing and where you're going. For example all of you that answered knife, gun, etc... what if you're in an airport catching a plane it a few minutes? Your stuff would change no? (Unless you go and enter one of the many restaurants that provide knives after you've been cleared by 'security' and put one in your pocket again).

I also like to think of it in terms of essentials. If we don't have clean air to breathe we're in trouble. That's where my ounce and a half, pocket-sized, Breath of Life Emergency Escape Mask, comes handy (according to FEMA every 2hrs an American dies in a fire and 75% die from inhalation of smoke and toxic fumes).
So, having that cleared... what can be the next worse thing that could happen to me? Probably not be able to stop bleeding (most common cause of death in trauma scenarios).. that's where my RESQPAK comes handy.
And for me... the 120 lumen flashlight just 'lives' in my pocket so this could be handy for blinding someone (including in an airplane), controling panic (including in a subway) and for finding my damn wallet every time I drop it under my car seat :-)

Keep 'em coming!

So what about the training (or lack of) that we carry with us and hopefully enrich constantly? Wait... that's probably a good enough 'theme' for my second post!