The two-second rule
Recently a gun nut enthusiast of our acquaintance called, and read an excerpt from a book which recommended, in essence, that your gun should be accessible within two seconds at all times. Since the average American has a violent encounter once every eighty-five years, this makes no real sense for the majority of us.
ÆGIS, March 2009 5 However, roughly 1.5 million heart attacks occur in the United States each year with approximately 500,000 deaths. Costs related to heart disease exceed 60 billion dollars per year. And, more to the point, chewing (not swallowing) an uncoated aspirin right away, at the first sign of chest discomfort or distress, can reduce the amount of damage to the heart muscle during a heart attack.
As it happens, we don’t have a gun accessible to us within two seconds – or two minutes, for that matter – but we always carry aspirin with us, and probably have it accessible, if not within two seconds, certainly in under fifteen seconds. In general we carry easily soluble chewable baby aspirin, and give (or would take) four of these when needed.
If you are concerned about your personal safety and survival, we would recommend that you add carrying aspirin to the list that includes fastening your seat belt, not smoking, not having unprotected sex, and not drinking (or using a mobile phone) while driving.
