What's Tactical about Tactical Equipment?

What is tactical equipment, or tactical gear? Or, more to the point: what's tactical about it? Good question. The best, although maybe not the most helpful answer, would be that it depends not so much on the equipment itself as on who uses it and for what purpose. I think we all agree that a snazzy multicam tactical holster attached to the molle vest or chest-rig of a special forces operative sneaking about in the mountains of Afghanistan would be considered a piece of tactical gear.

But that same holster could be used by a hobby shooter who never leaves the civilian firing range - nothing tactical about that, is it? Or an even better example, how about one of the molle pouches from Blackhawk or 5.11 or whatever, carried on our operative's chest-rig. That pouch could be also be attached to a very civilian cable guy's belt, simply because he finds it a very practical piece of kit for carrying his tools. Or he could be carrying them in a tactical gear bag or 3-day bug out bag. Definitely not tactical use.

See what we're getting at? Tactical is just a word used very loosely to indicate that a particular piece of gear may or may not be suitable for use by the military, swat-teams or some such military or paramilitary personnel. (Reversely, lots of very civilian gear is being used as military tactical gear or swat tactical equipment although its intended use is much broader than that, think North Face clothing, for example - their cargo pants look very much like your typical "tactical pants".)

So what's tactical about tactical equipment? Answer: there really isn't anything tactical about the tactical gear as such, but it's the fact that it is suitable for use in a tactical setting. Which in turn means that it is good, practical, hard-wearing gear. Stuff that, while it can be used by your grandma to hold her gardening tools, it is tough enough and practical enough to be approved by those working in the most hostile of environments - even though that may not have been the manufacturer's original intent.