Learning how to use kubotans, yawara sticks, ie striking/joint manipulation weapons, etc. is a nice skill set to add to your repotoire, the force continum dictates we meet a threat with equal or greater force. Striking weapons allow us to meet a threat who is not deadly, but maybe non-compliant with a painful meridian strike or finger lock, temporarily disabling them from doing what they were doing. It is also useful (as I have personally seen before) to temporarily distract an attacker with pain so you can access your firearm.
Let us take that one step further: what if you could carry one item that doubles as two? How about that flashlight or a simple carabiner on your keychain? The list goes on...and that is the beauty of force multipliers; it keeps you, the honest CCW licensed citizen armed on so many levels. You can also look at the legality and litigious side of it; if you had to use something like that to defend yourself (as dictated by the force continum), I doubt a Judge would see a small flashlight or carbiner as "a deadly weapon", it was a simple tool, you expanded the use of...genius.
In the old days, before the principle of force multiplication had been widely preached. One had to carry an assortment of "ninja" or "martial arts" weapons. You still see this today, and with the emphasis put now on toenail clippers as weapons??
The more low key and ambiguous you are, the better off you are. After all, as an armed citizen the only person that should know you are armed is you.
