Light It Up

A flashlight and a firearm are two different objects.

by
posted on May 3, 2025
Sheriff Jim Wilson

The vast majority of potential threats that we perceive turn out to be no threat at all. So how do we determine of it is a threat or not? Well, since most situations occur under poor light conditions it might be a good idea to light it up for a closer look. One solution that has become popular is to attach tactical lights to the firearm.

The problem with that is that we have now pointed a loaded gun at a person who is probably not a threat at all. More importantly, we are only a trigger press away from a really bad situation. Yes, I know that you don’t have to point the light directly at the person in order to check them out. The problem is that that is a pretty fine distinction; a loaded gun has been pointed in their general direction. It is, first and foremost, a safety issue.

A weapons-mounted-light is never a light; it is a loaded gun. While some might say that they would never endanger anyone by such actions, I have seen trained police officers violate this safety issue, holding their gun and using the light to conduct searches. A recent video on the internet showed a police officer searching a house and shooting a full-length mirror when she saw her reflection holding a gun.

So one solution that is often suggested is to simply have two lights, one on the gun and one hand held. The problem that I see with that is that now the person has to make a decision about which light to use in which situation. Decisions take time at a moment in which time may be a very critical factor.

Also, when encountering a potential threat we may really not be justified in drawing a gun at all. We should certainly be ready to make the pistol presentation but drawing on a person who turns out to not be any kind of threat may be a big mistake. Instead, it might be much wiser and certainly safer to have our hand on our gun, ready to draw, while we light the individual up with a hand-held light. The honest citizen that you light up will probably appreciate it a great deal.

Any defensive handgun school worth the name can teach students several methods for using a hand-held light in conjunction with their firearm, should it be necessary to shoot. And it is a far safer method than using a weapons-mounted-light to see what is going on around you.

Safety, we should all preach it. 

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