Imagine you’re home sleeping, but are awakened by a bump in the night. You know your house is supposed to be empty, but you’ve also been alerted that local homes have been broken into recently. You grab your nighstand pistol and investigate. You see a large shadow moving in your kitchen. The person has something in their right hand and points it at you. You command them to “get on the ground.” Instead they move toward you quickly and aggressively. With tension high, and the room too dark to effectively identify the weapon, you make the split second decision to neutralize the threat. Once the lights come up, you realize was a disoriented neighbor making a sandwich, and the “weapon” was a spatula for spreading mayo.
Today we are going to talk about why your carry pistol should have a weapon mounted light.
Many threatening encounters happen in low light situations. The sun is up half the day, leaving the other half in darkness. Indoor areas can be dark day or night. Lights that we depend upon to illuminate an area may be out or simply be off. We know that those who would attack us often wish to take advantage of dimly lit times or areas. We know that we cannot control every situation, and therefore bad things may happen in the dark.
As a result, we should have a light available, and I would argue that handheld lights are good, but our pistols need to have a weapon mounted light.
So why do we need a light?
Lights help us more effectively identify threats. It’s not only about finding that threat, but identifying what they are doing, any items they are holding, understanding facial expressions, and getting enough contrast and color to get the full picture. In low light, our eyes cannot pick out details clearly; colors are washed out. This is because our eyes can only use rods in low-light, and rods do not provide color information. Our cones, which allow us to see color, only work in brighter situations. So if we want to see the nuances of color and contrast, we need to have a bright light. This could be important when distinguishing between a toy gun and a real gun, for instance. Contrast is important if you want to see the details of what a person is doing, such as a slight shift in body language or clenching of fists. If we are making critical “shoot / no-shoot” decisions, we want to have every piece of information possible. We need a light.
Additionally, when we light up an area, we are more likely to identify other items or people nearby. If we have one unexpected person in our home, we want to know if he brought some buddies who are lingering in that dark corner. By having a light, we can more effectively identify other nearby threats that you may miss otherwise.
Lights can help prevent us from making a critical error. We have 4 firearm safety rules, and two of which are applicable here.
2: Never point your weapon at something you are not willing to destroy.
4: Be certain of the target, as well as target foreground & background.
A light helps us comply with both of these rules. When we use our light to identify, we are less likely to point our weapon at something precious. (As a side note, we should be clear that using a weapon mounted light does not require us to point our firearm at the target, but more on that later.) Our light will spill, allowing us to not only see and identify the target, but to more clearly identify with is in the foreground and background.
Finally, it’s possible that a light may deter an assailant, or may at least give us more time to react. If we shine a bright light in someone’s face, that person may not be able to see us clearly, or may reflexivly cover their eyes. This could give us a critical advantage. We have all been been blinded by an oncoming car’s headlights, this is a similar concept.
In short, carrying a light helps us identify whether something is a threat, whether the threat has become aggressive, and may reduce that threat’s ability to see our actions.
Hopefully I’ve now convinced you that a light is a necessary compliment to a handgun. So why not simply carry a handheld light?
I think a handheld light is a great tool; I use mine all the time. I’m often using it to see inside machinery, to move about my building, or identify wildlife on my property. It helps me more safely and accurately determine what is going on. But it is no substitute for a weapon light.
We have argued that a light must accompany every gun. The most certain way to accomplish this is to attach the light to the gun. As a result, the light is always with the gun… not on the nightstand, in the other pair of pants, or left in the car.
Even if carrying a light, our first reaction when surprised may be to draw the pistol. We may not have the time or desire to draw our light, then draw our pistol,or draw both simultaneously. With a weapon mounted light, we have light presented and available because it presents with the gun.
A weapon mounted light allows us to use a two handed grip on the pistol. Under stress, it’s hard enough to hit a target with both hands, let alone holding a light with one hand and a pistol with the other. All else equal, I prefer to have both hands on my pistol.
A weapon mounted light allows us to more effectively manipulate our environment. If necessary, I can pick up my child or open a door while keeping both my weapon and the light oriented toward a threat. These would be much more difficult with a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other.
It’s worth only mentioning that the weight of a light attached to the end of a pistol can reduce felt recoil and help reduce time to follow-up shots.
By attaching a light to our pistol, we have a significant advantage in presentation and accuracy versus a separate handheld.
The two most common arguments against weapon lights are that they’re big & uncomfortable, and that we don’t want to use our gun like a flashlight.
Regarding size and carry comfort, today’s modern lights have continued to get smaller while providing higher amounts of illumination. Examples include the Streamlight TLR-7A, Olight PL-Mini Valkyrie 2, and the new subcompact lights from Streamlight and Surefire. In addition holster manufactures such as Werkz provide a large selection of concealed carry holsters for specific pistol & light combinations. This means that we should be able to effectively and comfortably carry our pistol with a compact light.
As for the other argument, it’s worth pointing out that a weapon light is not a flashlight. Techniques such as baseboard or umbrella lighting mean that we can allow the light to bounce off the ground or ceiling to get good illumination on our subject. And having a light with a good “flood” (wide area of throw) can allow us to see something without pointing our weapon at it. We point the pistol nearby and allow the flood to illuminate the subject. We can use these techniques to identify whether or not something is a sufficient threat to point our weapon at. With the right mindset, we can avoid breaking the firearms safety rules we talked about while gaining the significant advantages of having a weapon light. And nothing I’ve said means you shouldn’t also carry a handheld light for times when presenting a pistol is not appropriate.
Hopefully this has given you some things to consider. We believe that both EDC and home defense pistols should be equipped with a weapon mounted light because it makes us and those around us safer.
Blessings!
I’d say there’s one disadvantage to a weaponlight: using it as a regular light can get you an assault charge if you’re pointing a deadly weapon at someone who isn’t a threat.