Weapon mounted light in home

[Mitch]

Simple fairness. If there is no light on your weapon telling an assailant where to aim, they would have no way to zero in line of sight on your forehead as you approach.

And obviously, you know your home much better than an intruder, so without lights, you would have an unfair advantage.

Bumping around in the dark with a gun. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, this.

[TheSierraDrifter]

For those that wear contacts, a bump in the night doesn't necessarily lend enough time to go put them in first. Bright weapon lights can help with this...

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Why bother with a gun at all? Just yell "I have a gun!!"

[psyrex]

It's always good to have choices. Having a weapon light can be bad for all the regularly mentioned reasons (letting intruders know where you are, muzzle sweep on friendlies, etc). So get one, but only as a backup if your handheld light is broken or lost, or if you, say, have to use your weak hand to hold onto your kid. But even a handheld flashlight can give away your position, so using that should only be a backup to remotely check out your home via security cameras.

Security should be in layers. Even if you shouldn't ever use it unless desperate, what reason is there not to at least buy one and have it around, unless you can't afford it?

[Eljay]

The light I would like to have on is over by the bad guy, not the one over by me. I guess I could shout "Hey, buddy! Turn that switch on, will you? I want to make sure you're somebody I don't mind shooting before I put my finger on the trigger!"

Slightly more seriously if home automation type technology becomes more popular I can definitely see having a semi-panic button in the bedroom that would turn on all the lights downstairs and at the staircase to the bedrooms. Just those coming on might spook a burgler and they'd at least illuminate somebody more determined.

[jdubs71]

Because it's Tacti-cool and looks badass!

[wpage]

All of the above.... C

[wecf]

take a good look at one while it is on and tell me what you see after.

[Dano3467]

Options are good.

[TheChief]

Light can be used as a weapon as well.

Most of the weapon lights are high intensity and provides many pros in a situation like a home break in. These include:

1. Partial blindness of the perp - bright light in the eyes when they are dark adapted is painful and blinding

2. See what's in their hands - Many people bring their hands up to protect their eyes after being blinded

3. Prevent the perp from seeing what or where you are - High intensity light in the eyes tends to prevent the receiver from getting a lot of details about you such as your build, weapon, distance, etc. Hard to be intimidating against a bright light.

There are other benefits but if you are really interested in learning more, pick up this book - Low Light Combatives by Ed Santos - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0979669014 Good read and he teaches courses around the country. I attended one and am a better "night fighter" for it

[FeuerFrei]

*Be sure of your target and what's beyond.
Having a weapon mounted light frees up your other hand. Calling 911? Flipping light switches? Opening/closing doors?

[fritztkatt]

My favorite is the streamlight tlr3. Mounts to damn near anything with a rail. If you put it in an AR quadrail you can operate it with thumb or fingers w/o a tape switch. Or infront of a vfg with index finger. It's not too bright either. Some people want 500lm lights for inside their house, not considering that it will blind everyone. 125lm is enough to spot my vision from 10' away in a well lit house. It lights my place up in the dark. Positive target id...

If I was putting it on a patrol rifle, a stupid-bright light would be a good option, or with a low/high especially for LE, so they aren't using stupid-bright while clearing a building.

[ChuckDizzle]

Because when lit there is no way my weapon is pointing in a direction in which I can't identify the target. Shooting in the dark kills more family and friends than bad guys. It happens regularly that people misidentify targets in negligent shootings.

[TheChief]

My favorite is the streamlight tlr3. Mounts to damn near anything with a rail. If you put it in an AR quadrail you can operate it with thumb or fingers w/o a tape switch. Or infront of a vfg with index finger. It's not too bright either. Some people want 500lm lights for inside their house, not considering that it will blind everyone. 125lm is enough to spot my vision from 10' away in a well lit house. It lights my place up in the dark. Positive target id...

If I was putting it on a patrol rifle, a stupid-bright light would be a good option, or with a low/high especially for LE, so they aren't using stupid-bright while clearing a building.

Hello Fritz, I was under a similar impression until the class I mentioned in my previous post. Best way to know one way or another is to test it on your self and see.

Dismount your light and give it to someone. Then one night with dark adapted eyes, have someone put something in their hand, and then shine the light at you and turn it off after three seconds. Now ask yourself if you could see what was in their hands, or how tall, fat, fit, aggressive, afraid, or any other real attribute about them. Do this with a low 80ish lumen and high 250+ lumen light.

What I found when I did this was that the low lumen light still lit up the whole room but let me see the person with the light better than the high output light did.

In addition to the other benefits listed below with a high intensity light, you can still use these techniques and benefits when you don't have a gun in hand.

[ChuckDizzle]

My favorite is the streamlight tlr3. Mounts to damn near anything with a rail. If you put it in an AR quadrail you can operate it with thumb or fingers w/o a tape switch. Or infront of a vfg with index finger. It's not too bright either. Some people want 500lm lights for inside their house, not considering that it will blind everyone. 125lm is enough to spot my vision from 10' away in a well lit house. It lights my place up in the dark. Positive target id...

If I was putting it on a patrol rifle, a stupid-bright light would be a good option, or with a low/high especially for LE, so they aren't using stupid-bright while clearing a building.

I use the same set up on my AR. It seems to hold zero at the short distances of HD even when I take it off when I got to the range or hunt with a bi-pod on that particular rail section.