Tacstar LED light mount? Yes/No

[Joeu20]

Dark room H/D scenario and the adversary has no light... you have a LED mounted.

Seems to me the light provides a potential adversary a target. They essentially aim for the light (and your behind it). I would like a Tacstar LED light mount but this is a concern to some of you?

 

[CoRoMo]

Yes it is an issue to some folks, but not to me. This gets discussed a lot.

 

[BADUNAME37]

My house is conveniently located in the country, on a street which happens to have a street light directly across the street from me. So, basically, all night, my house is lit well enough to walk around in without needing a flashlight.


As for gun gizmos, I would agree that, although giving you needed light to see, the bad guy also has a good target, especially if you don't know where he is. He certainly WILL know where YOU ARE!

 

[CoRoMo]

A weapons light isn't a flashlight. You shouldn't go strolling through the house with the thing on, while checking out the noise that made the dogs start barking.

 

[jakeiscrazy]

I say yes to a shotgun light. He most likely knows were you are anyways and you should be making it clear to him to get out and run. You've already pumped the gun, that should be enough. What you don't wan't to do is fire a shot at someone who isn't the intruder. Like a child or something. "Know your target and it's backstop." That means not taking shots in the dark.

 

[TexasRifleman]

If you feel like it's worth the possibility of shooting someone you know by mistake then by all means, don't use a light.

I mean, it's not like people who do this stuff for a living use lights....

And of course we all know that once you turn a light on you can't turn it off and move.... that wouldn't be fair would it?

Seriously, there may be plenty of reasons not to use a light in a given circumstance but the worry that it might give an intruder a target isn't one of them.

 

[Manco]

Many point out that a light gives one's adversary a target, and while that may be true, it's not that easy a target to shoot at, if you think about it--even if the bad guy isn't blinded by the light in a dark room, he's basically point shooting. Similar principles apply to lasers, which provide far more accurate aim for the shooter than the target. Of course, both should be used only as needed rather than constantly.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Thought I'd stick this in as another example of why not having a light might end up bad. Just happened today.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/071710dnmetofficershot.146524476.html

A rookie Dallas police officer was accidentally shot this morning by a veteran officer at a home in West Dallas, police said.

The incident occurred about 10:30 a.m. in an abandoned home in the 3700 block of Crane Street, where the two men were searching for a robbery suspect who was thought to be holed up there. There was no power at the house.

"It was very dark and hard to see," said Lt. Andy Harvey, a police spokesman. "That may have contributed" to what happened.

"Be sure of your target and what is behind it".

Hard to do in the dark.

 

[Manco]

"Be sure of your target and what is behind it".

Hard to do in the dark.

That's the bottom line, whether you use a handheld flashlight as I currently do, a weapon-mounted light, both, or your house lights. Take cover if you have to, take measures to avoid getting shot if you can (e.g. by holding the light away from your body), but you have to identify--and just plain see--your target.

 

[Dokkalfar]

I've thrown a small flashlight on the HD Mossberg because it can be useful. Most (all) flashlights have an on/off switch so you have the option to not turn it on unless you need it for the current situation. Better to have it for when you need it than have to find another one and hold it in your hand.

Or, you could just get a million+ candlepower light mounted and then any intruder just gets blinded. He can't even see what he might be shooting at