Weapon Mounted Lights: Some Tactical Considerations

Weapon mounted lights are not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, some of my earliest yet most prominent memories surrounding firearms stem from classic 1980s’ to early 2000 action movies all featuring weapons like the MP5 or Colt M4s before the days of RIS or keymod/m-lok rails. Even these weapons were outfitted with weapon lights.

Technology has obviously come a long way since then and thankfully modern day weapon mounted lights are much brighter, last longer and are no longer akin to attaching a full size Maglite to your firearm.

But this post isn’t intended to discuss the technological advances in lighting technology. Rather, it’s meant to discuss the tactical considerations of utilizing a weapon mounted light specifically in a civilian self defense context.

So why mount a light to your self-defense handgun?

Well first and foremost and perhaps the most obvious reason is that darkness is an absolute. No matter who you are or where you are, one thing is 100% for sure and that is, it is going to get dark. It astounds me that people carry a firearm to account for the statistically unlikely event that they may need it to defend their life but won’t augment that firearm with a light to account for the 100% likely event that the sun is going to go down. With the absolute nature of darkness, it is imperative that we have a way to make light. The reasoning behind this is multifaceted.

For one, statistically speaking majority of lethal force type encounters in which you would be utilizing your firearm are going to occur at night. Assaults, robberies, occupied burglaries/home invasions and other similar types of incidents, across the board occur more frequently when the sun is down.

Given that more of these types of incidents occur when your vision is going to be impaired, the concept of target identification becomes even more paramount. Simply put, when it’s dark, it's more difficult to recognize and assess a threat with certainty.

Is there really only one threat or are his friends standing behind him and you just can’t see them because it’s dark? Or is that really an intruder or is it your roommate coming home late?

It doesn’t take much searching to find cases in which homeowners have mistakenly shot and killed people who they believed to be intruders who were in reality family members, friends or drunk neighbors who believed they were in their own homes. This type of tragedy and potential jail time can be mitigated by the implementation of a weapon mounted light.

In court, when asked to articulate why you believed the individual you shot and killed was a deadly threat to you, you’re not going to be very successful if you cannot honestly testify that you were even able to clearly identify your target to begin with. It comes back to one of the most basic firearm safety rules, “be aware of your target and what lies beyond it.”

Another consideration to take into account would be that many lethal force type encounters occur at extremely close range. Attackers typically close the distance very quickly and you might very well not have the time to get a full presentation before firing rounds. Why is this important? The likelihood of you having to perform a contact shot becomes much higher when the attacker has closed the distance.

A contact shot for those less educated in the art of violence is when the shooter places the barrel of the firearm extremely close or sometimes in direct contact with the target before firing a shot. The result of such a close range blast of energy is immense wound damage. Grisly but a grim reality of a lethal force encounter. With a weapon such as a rifle or a handgun with a suppressor usually this type of action goes by without a hiccup. However, considering that most civilians are not going to be engaging threats with these types of weapons and rather are going to be engaging with standard handguns, comes the very prominent possibility of the firearm being taken out of battery.

For those who are unfamiliar with this concept, semi automatic handguns operate by having the slide reciprocate back and forth in order to chamber, fire and subsequently eject spent shell casings. When the slide is pushed back even slightly, the gun will not operate. This can easily occur during a battle for survival be it through hands grabbing for your weapon or the gun barrel being pushed against the threat. And it does not take a genius to recognize that if your gun won’t fire during a struggle for your life, it’s a big problem.

Here’s where the light comes into place. Unless you buy a flush fitting light like the Inforce APL-C, a weapon mounted light that extends past the barrel, will provide a barrier between the barrel of firearm and the target and allow for contact shots while mitigating the risk of the firearm being taken out of battery. This is obviously a huge tactical advantage because it allows you to make multiple contact shots, thereby increasing the probability that you stop the threat.

Now we’ve gone over some of what I believe are the most prominent reasons to mount a weapon light on a defensive handgun. However, there are also some tactical considerations that have to be accounted for. These are not necessarily drawbacks in and of themselves but more so further training requirements that come with utilizing a weapon mounted light.

Light discipline

Light discipline is a huge factor to take into account when utilizing a weapon mounted light. An obvious reality of activating a light is that you notify a threat of your presence. This is why practicing good light discipline and understanding when and where it might be more beneficial to refrain from activating your light and taking advantage of the darkness is crucial. Other practices such as practicing momentary illumination versus constant activation and avoiding backlighting yourself or a friendly are also important aspects of light discipline. A high lumen output, bright light can provide good concealment as a “curtain of light” but it can also disorient you if you shine it against a mirror or white wall. I’m not able to cover all the fundamentals of light discipline in a single post, the main takeaway is that it exists and it would behoove you to understand and train it before slapping a light onto your accessory rail.

Muzzle awareness

When you attach a light to the killing end of your weapon versus using a handheld light, muzzle awareness and trigger discipline become even more paramount. Why? Because using the light to identify threats, by default, may cause you to point your gun at somebody, even if that person doesn’t need a gun pointed at them. The implications of this are further discussed below.

While studying and training for building searches at the police academy, we were taught about the risks of negligent discharges during building searches being higher.

What studies have shown is that even trained police officers have a habit of “feeling for the trigger” while conducting high stress activities such as building searches. What this leads to is a higher risk of firing a round unintentionally.

Why does this matter? If your gun is drawn in any context outside of range time, there is going to be a spike in adrenaline. With this spike in adrenaline will come symptoms such as auditory exclusion and tunnel vision. When you combine this reality with the fact that you’ve now attached a light to your firearm, which you’re using to identify threats, you might find yourself in a situation in which you unnecessarily fire your weapon as a result of being startled in tandem with your adrenaline rush.

Consider the scenario of searching your home because you believe an intruder might be inside. Your adrenaline is going and you’re using your light to identify hostiles. Suddenly you’re startled by somebody stepping out in front of you and you shoot them. Turns out that person is your [insert whoever you did not want to shoot here.] It might sound crazy or far fetched but the reality is that adrenaline can severely affect your ability to assess a situation accurately. This becomes more problematic when the tool you’re using to identify a target is affixed to the tool you’re using to engage said target. With a handheld light, there’s more time in between putting that light on target and then raising your weapon to engage that target. Some might argue that that delay, even if it’s only a few milliseconds, can be enough to stop you from shooting somebody who you don’t want to shoot.

This implication just like other implications can be addressed with training. Learning how your body reacts to stress and how to mitigate the effects of adrenaline in a sterile, training environment can be hugely beneficial. If you can’t afford to take classes, gather some like minded friends and run through scenario based training. I myself have done these types of drills utilizing airsoft weapons. You may also introduce other types of stress such as loud music, vigorous exercise or anything you can think of. The point is train hard so that if the day of testing comes, you fall back to your lowest level of training.