Flashlights For Defense Use — Not Optional By: Bob Campbell

When I carry a handgun for personal defense, which is every day, I also carry a knife, light, and spare ammunition. The exact light depends on where I am going and the type of activity I plan to engage in. While a good general-purpose pocket light is essential, I also have larger lights strictly for home defense.

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In common with the pocket folder, the light is used for mundane chores. Weaving through a forest or walking the dog at night, I often use the light. I live in a region that is often hot and humid. Since I have no set work hours, I have the option of taking walks after the sun has set and the air is cooler.

The walk is essential to my health. While I don’t overburden myself, I carry what is necessary. I have the light quickly available. Within the week I have illuminated a hoot owl — quite an experience — and a few weeks ago a raccoon. My wife is leery of creepy crawlers, as she calls them.

While our pet is quite sensitive to these, and has killed several, a good light helps scan the roads and fields for reptiles. Lights are important. Your vision is a very important component of situational awareness and should be aided when possible.

Importance of Lights

If you don’t carry a light to augment your vision and awareness, you should do so. There has been a great deal written about very expensive lights and their advantages. Reliable, sturdy gear (i.e., expensive) is important some lights are surprisingly affordable.

The light must be dependable and useful. I like a quality light but not one that is so expensive that it would represent a hardship to replace. Transition from a well-lit home to a dim yard, from a department store interior to a dark parking lot, is difficult to adjust to quickly.

I like a compact light, as I can often carry the light in my hand without attracting attention. It isn’t a bad idea to quickly shine the light on the rear seat of the vehicle. There have been unpleasant incidents in which folks have been surprised by assailants who have hidden in the back seat. While unlikely, it is certainly possible and has happened many times. A light may precede your advance and give you a warning of threats and dangers, such as broken pavement or potholes.

Lights offer an advantage against an assailant hampered by darkness. They may become disoriented if the light is shown in their eyes. A shadowy figure may be a threat or an elderly or homeless person.

It is a duty to properly identify a threat before you react. Illumination and identification are important. A light provides the ability to quickly gather information.

Maintain your gear and check it often. Batteries fail. I like lights with rechargeable batteries, but it is best to use several types. You should practice with the light and use it often. The light should be held in the non-dominant hand and manipulated with the non-dominant hand freeing the dominant (strong side) hand for weapons use.

Weapon Lights

There is quite an industry concerned with convincing you that you need a weapon-mounted light. While there are obvious advantages, the art of mating a light to the firearm seems lost or ignored. There are tactics for quickly aligning the combat light and handgun or long gun. If you have a favorite shotgun or rifle that isn’t light compatible, you may learn to use a light in conjunction with the firearm.

I like the brightest light possible in a compact package. This means strong lumens. I don’t care for multiple mode lights for personal defense. A strobe or flashing light is useful for signaling in case of emergency but less so for illumination.

I like the switch to be at the end of the flashlight body. An exception is the SureFire Stiletto with switches on the top of the light. The best advice I can give is to practice with the type you use. Twist activation demands two hands. The tail cap switch is superior for critical use.

When using the light for illumination, it is important to avoid glare. As an example, I learned long ago when inspecting buildings for suspects that light often reflected off doors with metal furniture. Aim the light just to the side of what you wish illuminated.

As for mating the light to the gun, there are several techniques. Very few civilians, and not all cops, carry a weapon-mounted light. The weapon-mounted light is often clumsy when carried off the gun. Moving the light to the gun in a critical situation isn’t viable.

For a dedicated home defense weapon, keeping the weapon-mounted light married to the gun is a good idea. For concealed carry use not so much.

I don’t like the idea of searching with a weapon-mounted light. I use a separate light. The best technique I know of is to quickly marry the back of the hands together. The gun hand has a normal firing grip. The support hand comes under the firing hand, and the back of the hand goes against the back of the firing hand.

The light is pointed out the bottom of the hand and the thumb activates the tail cap switch. This is very solid although not as solid as the normal two-hand firing position. The light-bearing hand may be quickly moved to search without the gun hand. If you are using a long gun, work with a modified hold using the support hand to point the light forward.

Other Recommendations

Some recommend keeping the handgun in one hand and the light far away from the body. This is so that an assailant will aim for the light, not your body. Perhaps, but the assailant has probably seen your position before you lit him up. This is a far less stable firing position, and it is much more difficult to coordinate the light and the gun in this manner.

Some place the gun hand over the weak side hand or side by side and not locked together. These hasty forms of marrying the gun and the light are not nearly as effective locking the backs of the hands together. In the home, a dedicated combat light is a good choice. The handgun may be held in a solid two-hand hold with a mounted combat light. The handgun may be used without illumination, or the light may be activated.

In the home, I am far less concerned with searching with the gun and light together, as anything in the home is likely to be a threat. In a parking lot, I am not so certain. You don’t want to point a firearm at someone that isn’t a threat.

I suppose I have conducted over 100 building, field, woods, and area searches in uniform. Don’t be startled when you find a drunk, Wampus cat, or lost child. A tragedy could occur. A lost child is much more easily found than someone who doesn’t want to be found, the same is true of tracking — an art within itself.

When moving in the home, avoid fatal funnels. This is standing in the middle of the doorway or hall offering a perfectly centered target. Those making unbidden entry will make you dead meat if you go in high, wide, and handsome. Stand behind cover, not crowding cover.

Cover of any form is a lifesaver. I cannot recall anyone taking cover and still catching a bullet. Get behind a heavy door jamb. Even a Newel post or a bench is decent cover. Even when the furniture isn’t bulletproof — and very little is — it is concealment, and this will interfere with the invader getting a bead on you.

Take cover and use the intermittent switch when searching. Be careful and control your nerves. I like having a light hanging by the front and back doors, near the attic, and of course by the bedstead. While it is a very bad idea to have guns hidden around the house, lights are good to have.

If, like many of us, you have a firearm that doesn’t readily accept a combat light, among the best lights for home defense is the proven Maglite three cell. It is most important to have something you can rely on and to be certain it functions properly. Run the drills with a triple-checked unloaded firearm. Practice using the light alone and quickly marrying the light to the firearm.

Conclusion

While the most modern gear is commendable, proven firearms are easily pressed into the front line if need be. As an example, I recently helped a friend on a budget modify a vintage Ithaca 37 shotgun. This shotgun is beyond proven — it is an icon. I drilled and tapped the receiver for a TruGlo red dot sight and added a TruGlo Predator Hunt light. This light features an adjustable mounting bracket that mounts perfectly onto the Ithaca’s magazine cap. The shotgun is fast handling and has taken plenty of game. Now in the home defense role and loaded with Aguila buckshot, this is a formidable combination.

Do you have a weapon light mounted or a flashlight handy for home defense? how do you train with a flashlight or weapon light? Share your answers in the comment section.