Just received an alarming tip from a reader, alerting us to a knockoff CAT Tourniquet being produced by a Hong Kong Airsoft Company.
A general email was distributed to the DOD on May 10th with the following PDF on how to tell the difference between the North American Rescue Combat Application Tourniquet and the fake Element Airsoft E-CAT.
[gview file=”https://www.itstactical.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/faketourniquet.pdf”]
As we’re sure you realize, fake tourniquets are nothing to take lightly, and the close resemblance of these to the real thing is scary indeed. The possibility of these being purchased by uninformed consumers is real. Please distribute this information to all those you know in harms way, or anyone who could potentially be using a tourniquet.
With all interventions like tourniquets you should consistently check for proper occlusion, but knowing this is out there, its time to take a detailed look at all your CATs. If you’ve purchased direct from NARP you should be good to go. There’s a substantial .gov discount from NARP, so there’s no reason not to buy direct if you’re looking at individual purchases by service members.
Here’s the link to the original source we received for the PDF www.545ar.com/faketourniquet.pdf
Thanks to Doug W (Tango 7) for the tip!