Events in Paris provide an excuse for med kit upgrade

[Aesop]

Ehh, I have actually been overprepared before, carrying too much crap I did not need that there was only the remotest chance of me using. It's all about balancing. Anyway regarding the treatment of gun shot wounds and the like. What you seem to be saying that that we either need a ton of training or we are better off just watching them bleed to death. Not everyone has the time or the resources to get hundreds of hours of medical training. We have to do what we can with what we have. Pima County Sheriff officers successfully used TQs and the like to save a number of lives. These things work and don't require allot of training. I am not going to pretend that it's as good had a fully trained medic and their bags of tricks, but it's allot better than nothing.

A basic EMT card is two nights a week for three months. If life is truly too busy for that, I feel your pain, and best of luck when things get sporty.
If all you're going to learn is how to TQ an extremity wound, and there are no Abx to treat it afterwards, you're better off studying Civil War amputation indications, since you'll either be doing that, or watching a steady stream of gas gangrene deaths suffered in slow, lingering fashion.
Since this is presumably you and yours we're talking about, the choice is yours.

If you merely committed to buy and study a great basic text without attending the class, you'd still be miles ahead of 95% of the civil populace.

As far as being a gear mule, I completely understand.
I once had a Teamster pup bitch about transporting my daily kit (A Sears job tote, two large tackle boxes, and a jump bag, along with my rolling dolly to move it around), which was killing an entire bench seat in the transpo van to our set one day.
I told him if he could tell me to a guaranteed certainty which things I carried that I would never need that day to treat patients or save someone's life, I'd gladly leave them in my car. He shut the hell up at that point, and that was the end of that discussion.

I've gotten .pdfs from the intarwebz of the contents list for current GWOT-era AF Pararescue med kits, SEAL aid bags, Ranger med kits, SF med kits, and the CLS and basic Navy corpsman bags, etc., and the amount of agreement is remarkably similar, to the point that is reliably described as data. I even have a vintage 1966 USN corpsman bag, packed exactly as carried by the former owner on patrol with grunts in I Corps outside Da Nang in the day. Other than the lack of some of the modern gee-whiz doodads, there's nothing in it that would baffle anyone, and other than the noted exceptions, it looks remarkably like modern kits.

[Kommander]

It's actually more an issue of money than time. Just so we are clear though I agree with you 100% that being able to stop bleeding of serious trauma is not enough in SHTF and other emergency situations where you are cut off from professional help for whatever reason. However for situations where the calvary is on it's way a blow out kit and the basic training to use it is sufficient.

Going back to the EMT classes can you recommend any local places that give such classes. I recently had the misfortune of having to move back to Orange County and may at some point be able to overcome the monetary issues.

[Aesop]

Try the OC Regional Occ Program classes.
But, they want $900.

If you're close to LA County, check their community colleges(pdf alert), which will likely be vastly cheaper. Mt. Sac, Rio Hondo, Cerritos, Long Beach, etc. are all OC-convenient.
(Paying $900 for a class that qualifies you to earn minimum wage strikes me as a sucker's deal.)

OTOH, the above-referenced Orange Book is about $75, used.

[Kommander]

Yea I looked into becoming an EMT in AZ and it just seemed like a really bad deal as at the time I was getting 14 an hour and not only was my training paid for but I was paid to go.

[Yogimus]

There is NO NEED for 6 containers of bandaids. Bandaids are not an emergency item. Neosporin and med tape do the same thing, and that would give you enough space for 2 more eyewash bottles, and some antibiotic pills. (get the stuff from a vet, no prescription required) Tweezers, and a tourniquet would be nice, as well as one of those folding splints.

[Netpackrat]

I recently had the misfortune of having to move back to Orange County

WTF man?

[Kommander]

I recently had the misfortune of having to move back to Orange County

WTF man?

I was offered free schooling and room and board. Pretty hard to turn down.

[Netpackrat]

Congrats, good luck. How long?

[Kommander]

Until I get the degree and can get out of the state. Honestly things are not going well. First semester I got only two classes. This time I got three. Hoping this was not a bad idea.

[Aesop]

There is NO NEED for 6 containers of bandaids. Bandaids are not an emergency item. Neosporin and med tape do the same thing, and that would give you enough space for 2 more eyewash bottles, and some antibiotic pills. (get the stuff from a vet, no prescription required) Tweezers, and a tourniquet would be nice, as well as one of those folding splints.

As far as stopping bleeding best described as a heavy drool, you'd be right.
But when seen as a "skin replacement/infection barrier" in a situation where grinding dogshit and the equivalent into an open wound is an invitation to sepsis, you'd be dead wrong. Particularly in an extended wait for higher levels of care type of situation, or lovely war/humid/tropical environs where an open wound will get infected within hours.
Do not denigrate the efficacy of the humble bandaid, coupled with a glob of Neosporin, AKA Wonder Spackle, to do exactly what you need it to do.
Prevention is emergency medical treatment too.