You’ve read about tactical pens in this space and you’ll continue to do so. That’s because I’m a firm believer in their efficacy as self-defense tools. You know how every now and again you have an “Aha!” moment — when you come to realize something so important or insightful or helpful you can’t believe you didn’t think of this sooner? That’s me with tactical pens. One author writing about self-defense turned me onto the idea and now I carry one everywhere I go. No, really — everywhere. I carry a tactical pen more than I carry a gun and just a bit more than I carry a folding knife. It’s the ultimate EDC tool: the one that requires the least amount of training in order for it to be effective. The one that is the most innocuous but easily available of all self-defense tools. It’s a pen … and there are so many on the market today that it looks like the self-defense community is finally getting the point as to how useful they truly are.
I have a handful of tactical pens in my collection. They all write well and they all function as excellent strike weapons. One of the pens in the middle range of price and capability includes the 5.11 Double Duty 1.5 Tactical Pen. Retailing for $59.99, this pen is super strong and features threaded end caps. Most of the time, the cap will be screwed on to the writing end, keeping the ink tip covered or protected while leaving the business end — a very sharp point — exposed. In this configuration, the cap (and its rubber pad end) creates a very grippable end with plenty of leverage for using the tool as a strike weapon.
If this 5.11 Double Duty pen excels at anything, it is breaking glass. With a sharp blow to the corner of a window or vehicle glass, it mimics the snapping strike of a glass-breaking tool. The sharp end, of course, serves as a very effective inflictor of pain if you have to use it against a person, and it is likely to cut clothing and skin if jabbed at someone hard enough.
In its more mundane use as a pen, the Fisher Space Pen PR4 Medium Point Black ink cartridge writes well, writes when the pen is upside down and writes underwater — not that you’d do that a lot. But you might have to make notes in the rain, and this ink cartridge makes that possible. When writing with the Double Duty, you screw the cap on the pen, covering the strike tip. But that doesn’t mean the tool’s strike feature is rendered unusable. You can still strike with the ink cartridge tip.
And that’s it. Simple, effective double duty. Writing tool, strike weapon. Always on your person. Are you getting the point?
