Do I need a weapon light?

[Boboclown]

With a 1000 lumens I'd want a programmable flashlight. Low for indoors, high outdoors, and high indoors if the invader has a brighter light.

Been using a streamlight on a draco and my brn-180s upper. It handled the draco so far.

 

[American123]

You don't want to make yourself a target leaving your light on constantly. Leave light off and turn on and if BG shoot otherwise off. If possible you want to move in a non intuitive direction if possible since there may be multiple BG.

My weapon lights are like 235 lumens only which is bright enough to see your target. My shotgun has like 600+ lumen light on it. It is a Streamlight TLR-1 HL. There is a newer version that is even brighter now.

I think the point I made is different than the one you responded too. The point I made was that if choosing to apply a light on a target, that strobe was less effective at making the target "look away" than constant on was in my experience. That also being said, there is a huge difference between using white light in a self defense encounter vs using it in the military context. If we remove military white light use and only focus on self defense. There are so many factors related to using white light that a single standard of use can't be applied.

For one thing, outside or inside plays a big role in WL use. Outside 1000 lumens will effectively light up a target and area, inside, when applied wrong, it could worsen conditions for the defender due to reflection. There are also self defense scenarios that don't involve more than 1 gun. For example, at night, someone could be using a knife or blunt object to threaten deadly force but may have not advanced to the point that dropping them dead is warranted. In this context - keeping the light pointed at their face will significantly inhibit their ability to see their target effectively enough to launch an initial attack. What I mean is, if you are taking 800-1000 lumens to the eyes at night, you aren't going to be able to see ANYTHING else behind that light. This isn't to say that a person should walk around with their light constantly on, however, at some point, the purpose of the light is to illuminate the target, and if the target is not visible without the light, then trying to engage the target without the light is rather pointless.

There are a lot of old trainings that say "hold the light off body to illuminate a target" that method of training is no longer considered by many to be the effective standard for multiple reasons. Generally speaking, I think we agree to a certain extent, but most cityscapes are illuminated enough that you won't be "invisible" if the light is turned off, so other than it being used as a beacon of where you are, there's little issue. Tough to respond to this with 1 all encompassing response.

 

[Tony617]

Not sure this information is the latest anymore but I found it somewhat useful years ago.

Proper use of weapons lights on ARs - AR15.COM

 

[Dornai]

For any gun whose use may fall outside of general range plinking, yes. A weapon light is absolutely necessary.

Even if you work and are active outside during day light hours; what happens when the lights go out in your building? What happens if you are out late at night?

You may only shoot what you can positively identify as a threat. If you cannot PID, you cannot shoot.

 

[American123]

Not sure this information is the latest anymore but I found it somewhat useful years ago.

Proper use of weapons lights on ARs - AR15.COM

That might have been a source of disconnect as I was primarily referring to pistol use.

SageDynamics on youtube has several very informative videos on the subject.

 

[gmerkt]

At my age, I'm like the Apaches. No fighting after the sun goes down nor before it comes up.