The Light Debate

General Discussion
1

So where do you stand with having a light on your weapons? See this debate rage all over the place and it’s one of those things where both sides make valid points.

Absolute must have?

Nice to have?

Don’t care?

Me? I have one on one of my Daggers, but you can place me firmly in the “nice to have” camp. I’m of the belief that’s it’s one of those things that can’t hurt to have, the blinding factor might even work as a deterrent, but is it an absolute 1000% necessity? I don’t believe so. First off, yes, target identification is a thing, but I’d argue you should not be pointing, let alone firing, a weapon in an environment that’s so dark you can’t see literally anything near or around you. I can imagine that alone presents a bit of an issue in a legal defense because even with a light you can only ID what’s immediately in front of you, you still don’t know what’s far in the distance and knowing what’s behind your target for the entirety of the effective range of your round is as important as knowing what your target is.

Secondly, I can imagine in nearly any home defense scenario one of the first things anyone is going to do is get the lights on, and quick. Maybe even before grabbing a gun. It’s for this reason I don’t have lights on my rifles…if I have time to get to my rifles, the lights are on.

I can see how others might feel differently. Where are you at?

2

I have lights on a few guns but not all. The way my house is set up all my motion lights on the outside will be on.

3

Speaking for myself, I’m glad to have them. Especially for night time home defense. At night, my pistol and rifle are closer to my bedside than the light switch. My apartment only has windows on 2 of 4 sides, so it can get pretty dark in here, even with my motion-sensing night lights. I’m not going to tell someone else to put lights on their stuff, though.

I also keep a flashlight and headlamp at bedside.

4

Light is great unless you yourself don’t want to be located… Enemy will shoot at the point of light,even if blinding or even a lit cigarette.

Home defense is not the same as at war though, unless you are trying to remain stealthy anyway, to not let the intruder know that you are even there until you ruin his entire day. You can still have a light and decide whether or not to turn it on depending on situation.

I get up and have and will go out a door barefoot in my skivies and usually can see pretty good with ambient light. I become the attacker, not the victim, heaven help whoever seeks to do us harm…

I did however once duct tape a three D cell maglight to my double barrelled shotgun and search bushes for wannabe gangbangers when I lived in California. The police came, and joined the search and liked my rig. Yep California was not ruled by a bunch of Prius drivin sissys back then. 1991.

5

Back in 1993, my family was living just north of Charlotte in NC on a quiet cul-de-sac. Someone broke into one of my neighbor’s garages and everyone on the street heard the noise. Soon enough my father was out there with a maglite and a 12ga pump along with 6 other neighbors, the least armed of which had a very large machete. I watched all this from the window as I was 10. Whoever did the breaking in was either hiding (and scared ----less) or took off, they never found him, but for the 5 other years we were there there was never another incident. The police were cautious approaching an armed mob of neighborhood dads on high alert.

The early 90s sure were a different time.

6

For home defense, unless you keep nods by the bed, I’ve decided it is a necessity. Not only does it allow you to locate the intruder/attacker/home invader, but tap the switch again (on my TRL7X) and the strobe effect will disorient almost anyone.

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7

Interesting topic and different perspectives. Here are mine.

My home defense weapons are shotguns. Target identification is the most important element in home defense. I will not shoot a handgun or rifle toward, and possibly through multiple Sheetrock walls unless I have no other choice. My home defense weapons all have low brass #8 or #9 rounds in them. If I shoot someone in my living room at something like 12-14 feet, they’re no longer going to be a threat.
As was already mentioned, having a flashlight on a pistol can potentially direct return fire toward me so I choose not to use them. It’s unlikely I would be out in public in total darkness anyway. Even hotels have emergency hallway lighting in case we need to get out.
Finally, training is an important element and I’ve never trained with one. During my previous career they weren’t even a thing. We used a Streamlight SL-20 for both light and as a striking weapon. But we were trained not to hold the light in front of the body as to create a target.

Unrelated but funny. When I was a kid my dad had one of those flashlights with the magnet on it and he kept it stuck to the dash of his pickup. I would take it and fix it to the left side of the receiver of my 870 so I could go out at night and shoot cottontail rabbits. Since rabbits weren’t game animals it was legal and they are so yummy. In the winter I’d go out and shoot a few, clean them, and my mom would cook them up in whatever dish she felt like the next day. Good times.

8

I have 1 on one of my G2Cs but not the one I’d grab first. I’m of the opinion that if you have a light on your weapon and don’t know exactly where your potential target might be, then you yourself could easily become the target as they now have something to aim toward.

With modern lighting options and the fact that I live in a densely populated area, I can see pretty well even with a new moon. There’s just a lot of light pollution around. However I do have one on my second G2C in case the lights go out everywhere and it’s truly pitch black

I’m not going to fire until I know I’m going to hit what I’m shooting at and that the projectile is going to become pretty much harmless after doing so. I live in a very small apartment and I live alone. All the units here are layed out the same with our bedrooms being at the farthest point from the front door however If an intruder is to get in, they are most likely going to come in through a window because there’s a security code to get into the lobby and the doors to our pads are pretty rugged and deadbolt locks, no locks on the regular door knobs so in order to have our doors locked at all, we have to use the deadbolts.

It would take either an experienced lock picker or a ram to get in the front door. A ram is obviously going to wake up every tenant in the building. 8 units share the same lobby space and I highly doubt an experienced lock picker is going to be after anything any of us have. We all live in the same 780 ft/2 spaces and none of us have valuables that an organized outfit is going to be after. Generally experienced lock pickers aren’t common criminals involved in petty theft and apartment burglaries. they command a higher value and are usually employed by organized groups with much higher marks than us commoners. That’s not to say it isn’t a possibility, just that it’s not a likely one.

A more realistic picture of the type of person who would hit us is an addict looking for some stuff to grab for a pawn shop drop to get some quick cash for a fix. There are 2 windows in each unit, both on the same wall, one in our bedrooms and one in the main area/living/dining room. If the perp is not too smart they might try the bedroom window, in which case, unless they come crashing in with all they have, which will also wake up at least the 4 units on this side, I’m going to hear them trying and immediately grab my first G2C with no light and hit my light switch, which is going to immediately deter this type of goon and it’s over there. If they do come crashing in, they’re going to land on my bed with me in it. Depending on who they are, there could be a number of scenarios in that case but any way one looks at it, they’re in serious trouble unless they either know exactly where my G2C is or they turn out to be an attractive female who likes to wrestle before other things that may happen. Wouldn’t that be something?!

Anyhow, the other way in is the living room window which I may or may not hear right away. I’m certain however that there would be at least some noise that would alert me even if in pretty good sleep as I have plants and other noisy glass, ceramic, and metal items of various uses and sizes and amounts of noise making potential that it would be pretty much impossible for anyone to get past without causing something to make noise. I also have a couple of wind chimes hanging so that any movement of the curtains will cause them to sound.

Anyway, by the time they are inside, I’m on the floor prone with my unlit G2C pointed at the corner that I will first be able to see any sign of a person and have a clear shot without risk of even a stray bullet going toward any other life besides the possibility of one of my plants and they are in for a big surprise when I do have my shot.

I haven’t encountered an addict yet that carries a gun because they are worth something which means they would have sold it for dope money before even trying to fire it. so the chances of the type of person who’s going to be in my place having one is quite slim

Now, if it is a lights out situation and I truly can’t see, it’s more than likely going to be a shtf scenario and I won’t be here long anyway. I have a bug out bag and a plan for that and it’s not hanging around my apartment waiting for the goons to come. I’m 10 minutes by mountain bike from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and there’s much better ways to survive up in them hills. I’m not going to be anywhere near “civilization” if that’s the case and in survival mode on my own I’m not going to want to give up my position with a light on my gun. The one light I do have is only in case I need it on my way from here to the hills, if it’s pitch black and my only chance of seeing a target is with it and it’s truly a last resort thing.