Modern firearms often come equipped with rails to accept, well, anything that may fit on them. A lot of people feel that a firearm is not complete without a light. We know there are tons of vendors willing to sell you lots of things you don’t need. The “lightweight rifle” won’t remain that way if you attach a fraction of one percent of all the gadgets out there.
Since the civilian firearms are copies of what the military/police use, they come with the same furniture. The professionals who chase people hither and yon require differing items than what the civilian user needs. Now that people are upset about not having those exact items, consider that the items used are likely restricted from civilian usage in the first place. Feel free to pick up your lollipop out of the dirt now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiI6diEamUY
Since any responsible citizen knows that they cannot chase barbarians away from their gates, they should realize that they do NOT need a light over more than 100 lumens to do their castle wall defending with.We also know that it’s not 1993 anymore and LED lights are superior to white lights.
If we do not listen to those who actually use lights in offensive/defensive tactics, we will indeed buy something with a lumen count in the hundreds. If you use one of the million candle power super lights inside your house, you will blind yourself with the reflection of excessive light off of the walls. Even if you have a sight picture on the primary offender (albeit briefly) you’ll fail to see his accomplice. Bad guys travel in packs.
Since it’s not 1993, we know that any device employing a cord,or pressure switch will eventually get tangled with…something, so avoid them. This is an inevitability.
Any light for home defense needs to have a battery that we can actually find in a store which doesn’t cost more than the light. Any light claiming to be rechargeable means that it is an expensive container to haul around dead batteries in.
I recommend against a light with a strobe feature. Having too much light in a room is bad enough, but when you have too much light in a room blinking super fast, it messes you up as badly as the threat. This is simply foolish.
Realistically, where is the optimal point of placement for your light on your AR platform? The answer is- wherever the hell you decide it should go. Knowing that, think about this- if you do any type of room clearing- even in your home, you’ll be using Support Shoulder half the time. Maybe a good idea is to put the light on the top rail, where it can be manipulated with either hand, from either shoulder. this also translates to shotguns, because, after all, we understand that defending a home with a pistol is an absolutely dismal choice.
Practice maneuvering around with an empty firearm, becoming proficient with both hands and light usage. The ability to have positive identification of a hostile threat is paramount. There have been tragedies of parents shooting their children who didn’t hear their parents, due to earbuds.
Believe it or not, there are people wandering around with lights on their pistols, too. There are even people who have this type of set up, and carry the whole shebang hidden in their pants. If you can do that, fantastic. Most people cannot have this arrangement tucked inside their pants, due to physical imperfections, age,tactical girth, etc.
Remember that with a light on your gun, you muzzle anything you point the light at. The same rule applies to pistols as rifles- that is- if you’ve got a light on a gun, don’t be using it to find the keys you dropped in the floor board. Indirect lighting can avoid this. This is where the super bright modern lights shine.
Did we touch on anything new here? Hopefully, yes we did. There are people who commit cardinal sins with lights/firearms every day/night.
Photo courtesy of Tim M.
