EDC-Lights on pistols

EDC
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I am going to get some heat for my view on this subject. Why are we attaching flashlights to our EDC pistols? We are not police, operators, ATF, or Homeland security. We are ordinary folks who want to protect our loved ones. I carry a 1000 lumens flashlight with me as part of my EDC. What purpose does it serve to have a light on your EDC? Are we going to use our Pistol flashlights to Identify a person? How much low light training are we doing? A tactical flashlight will impair a threat and give you enough time to draw or retreat with practice. I never want to pull my EDC unless I have no other choice. So we draw our EDC with our Flashlight attachment to see a friend or Foe? Bang, I shot the person by mistake. What is everyone’s thoughts-- No, you can not hurt my feeling, lol. I want to hear from the community!!

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Before retirement and working nights, my carry gun always had a light, and I used it as a flashlight, unlocking my car and house coming home. Now my chairside gun has a light, and becomes my bedside gun after shutting the house down at night. My thoughts are if LEO, SWAT, operators and the like have lights, it must be a good idea…My day carry guns don’t have lights, but if out at night, my pistol provides visibility.

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kinda plays hell with that dumb ole JC rule about not pointing the gun at anything you don’t want to destroy, eh?

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Gotta admit, you gotta point :thinking:

I prefer to think of it as “commonsenseguncontrol” :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
In my defense, car door, house door, carpeting…

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I was thinking the same thing- –
Treat all firearms as if they are loaded.
Never point at anything you do not want to destroy
keep your mother fing finger off the trigger until you acquire the target
Know what is beyond your target

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I don’t like flashlight attached to my EDC. But this is me. I’ve been discussing this for few years with my colleagues and this is really personal preference.

How do I see it:
PROS of handgun mounted light:

  • single hand operation

CONS of handgun mounted light:

  • i will need new holster
  • I will never point my handgun at anybody to only identify him / her
  • I don’t want to compromise my exact location flashing the light in front of me

So the way I train this is to use FBI method, keeping the flashlight away from me. My advantage is that I’m left handed, so the chances are, in low light or darkness, that the bullets will fly even further from me.
Having the light in my other hand also gives be few extra options for distraction and making ambush. And I can also use it as the weapon of first choice.

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The instructor at my CCW class made an interesting observation. In the dark an assailant may shot at the light, if it’s mounted to your firearm you may be attrcting fire right at your face. His thing was hold a flash light up high, over your head or out wide, arm stretched to the side. The idea being you may be attracting fire away from you. Kind of made sense.

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Think about the EDC gun. What does EDC stand for? It stands for Every Day Carry. It will be your #1 go to. Whether it’s out in the day, or in the middle of the night.

I always hear the
It will give out your location- if you are pulling your firearm, you must be in an imminent deadly threat, we’re not sniping people in the dark.

We must absolutely always identify our target.
Too many Kids are shot because suprised I decided to come home in the middle of the night and do a surprise visit, or a family member got up to use the restroom and the first thing you do is grab your gun, and shoot the family member.

There are 3 pillars we have to think about when we pull our firearm.
-Target Aquisition
-TARGET IDENTIFICATION
-Target Isolation.

If you fail to identify the threat, you just shot a family member.

Yes I have a edc flashlight, but when the guns come out, I want both hands on my gun.

We have to think of our responsibility.

Put a bright enough light on your attatchment, and you will blind them in complete darkness.

Target identification is a must.

If you don’t need the light, guess what?

WHEN YOU DRAW DON’T TURN IT ON!

I carry Glock, idk about anybody else but there’s always a holster out there for a Glock with a light.

When it is time to be shooting I want to be able, identify and verify threats, putting shots down at the target as most efficiently I need to be.

You need to simplify, and think of your main objectives without worrying about what is the other hand doing while you’re shooting.

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If you do that you’re a idiot! WHY DO YOU HAVE YOUR FINGER ON THE TRIGGER IF YOU’RE NOT READY TO FIRE??? WHY ARE YOU NOT USING THE OUTER RING OF THE LIGHT TO IDENTIFY THE THREAT?

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This is why I do not have a light on firearm- I do not want to point a firearm at my son. I have 1000l lumens flashlight and i will use that with my pistol in my other hand.

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Watch the video I posted above, you use the ambient light method to identify the threat.

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As I said, you can call me names and yell. I am never going to point a loaded weapon at my kids or anyone without knowing if they are a genuine threat-- you do you.

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Don’t point the firearm, at the threat, use the ambient light from the WML to identify threats, when it is a verified confirmed threat and your life is imminently in danger, just get to the high ready position and go to work. Quit complicating things.

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I have trained in low light and simulation on home break-ins. I am going to stand by my training method/principles. I do not draw my pistol unless I have to. If I shine my light on the person’s face, they will be temporarily blinded.
Are you saying your WML is pointing at the ground or at the person?

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@Forensic_Wow … I’m confused now.

So I’m guessing, you are using WML on EDC. That’s OK. But the same time you want to identify the threat not pointing the firearm at it. I can understand this as well, but this method means, you are pointing the muzzle somewhere and you need extra time to bring the muzzle at the threat showing your location the same time.
it doesn’t click…

The video is great, but this works fine with the light in the other hand and your firearm is ready to use right away.

Maybe I’m missing something…

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After a self defense incident in court would the prosecutor ask if you could positively identify the person(s) as a threat in the dark?
Hypothetically speaking

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I’m just saying I want both my hands on the gun, as I’m shooting, I don’t want to be worried about what my offhand is doing, I want to be worried about shooting as I’m illuminating the threat.

I find it easier to keep both hands on the gun, then worrying what each hand is separately doing, I have one hand I’m using to manipulate and operate a light and another hand used for shooting. Under stress, that’s a mess to me. I’m over complicating things.

What I prefer is having both hands on my firearm, pointing it at a low ready and use the outer ring of the light to splash and identify threats, if I happen to need to shoot, the light is already on, and the light that reflects back at me creates the shadows of my front sights where I can see them in the dark, once the threat is down, I can keep both hands on my firearm, and keep the weapon pointed at the threat, and use the illumination of the WML to watch for the threat to reappear.

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Keep the weapon pointed in a safe direction whether at the ceiling, or on the ground, let the ambient light help identify the threats around you. If you want to illuminate the upper body of a threat keep it pointed high, if you want to illuminate the lower portion of the threat keep the firearm pointed low, if a threat is identified all you have to do is is just simply point it at the threat. There’s no worrying about dropping something, or the Harry’s method, or FBI method, and doing 2 different things with your hands.

The light you see in the room is from the WML it’s self.

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I don’t carry a weapon mounted light. I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but I don’t want to carry anymore than I have to.

My HD gun currently has a mounted light (that might change here soon depending on my set up). The reason for it is if I grab the gun, I immediately have everything I need, like the post above, a decent gun light is powerful and will give off ambient light so you don’t have to aim the light at anybody. Reason 2 is though I prefer handheld light, it’s good to have 2 (one is none, two is one). If e handheld goes out, I’m not sol.

Really just personal preference. Weapon light should never be used as a flashlight when mounted on a gun unless it’s a potentially life threatening situation.

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OK. Like I mentioned - all is about personal preferences. Thank you for clear explanations.
We use the method which works best for us and there is no better or worse method. :+1:

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