You wanna try all this with a candle and a brass bead?
How much time have you spent trying to find what works best in the dark? I've done quite a bit of it and I regularly practice in the dark. Iron sights, scopes, red dots, various hand held flashlights and finally weapon-mounted lights. Night sights are a definite improvement over standard sights but they're not perfect. They're still iron sights. They still have to be lined up and obscure the target area more than a red dot. There is no better setup (barring NVG) than a mounted weaponlight and a red dot. It's fairly well proven that they are quicker to acquire than irons. Like I said, I don't employ one for home defense and only have one micro reflex that I don't even like. I can still acknowledge the advantages they have on a home defense handgun. My bedside gun is a 1911 with a light and night sights.
As I said, I have a long home that is not very deep. I used to go into dozens of homes a day. You'd be surprised how many homes of average size have a very long hallway. Fact remains, just because you're inside your home, does not mean that engagement distance will automatically be very short. I've only been in one situation (maybe two) where I thought I might need my concealed carry handgun and my antagonist was a lot more than 7yds away, with a rifle. IMHO, it is a mistake to limit your training to short distances, banking on ALL confrontations being at such distances.
No argument from me on the last part, I think people who are only shooting at 7yds or less away are not doing themselves any favors if they ever needed to shoot at 15 or 25 yds away. When I'm shooting the steel plates at my club's outdoor pit area, I'm always shooting 12yds to 20yds away, while most others are about 5-7 yds away.
One thing I do have to ask is, how many burglars and home invaders are packing rifles instead of handguns these days to where that's a legit thing to be concerned about? I think someone winning the lottery is more likely to happen than a rifle wielding burglar breaking in to their home. Now, if it's some sort of organized home invasion by a trained paramilitary strike force that's got rifles and body armor, I don't think any handgun in anyone's hands who isn't named John Wick is able to fend that type of attack off.
I don't hear of many paramilitary forces doing that in the United States... yet, so let's factor that possible, yet unlikely situation out.
Again, I see an obsession with "The Best" as you are stating that nothing surpasses a red dot w/ a weapon light on a home defense pistol for no light/low light situations. That's a pretty good setup, possibly the best, but I don't see it as necessary, I don't see it as far and away superior to justify the cost.
Of course every time I make that argument, the knee jerk reaction is always along the lines of "is that all your life is worth to you?"
The point of self defense should not be how much you're willing to spend to have "The Best", it is to have the tools available that give you a significant advantage that way you can live and enjoy the rest of your life as you see fit and use your money to facilitate that enjoyment.
That's not to say if someone feels they need a 1000 lumen light that costs $200, a $500 red dot, and a $1000 pistol to ensure their safety that they shouldn't buy it, they absolutely should... but that's not to say that a $200 stock Taurus with a $40 light can't do the same thing when the chips are down.
Does that mean I'm trying to say that a quality red dot and a bright as the sun light aren't the best tools? No, they're pretty good, but so much better that they're "The Best" for everyone... as one Paul Harrell would say, "You be the judge."
