3 Sept 17

On flashlights, from a friend and one of my Instructors:

“There are good reasons to have flashlights constantly on your person, in every car, and all over your house:

1) Sometimes, flashlights are not where you remember putting them!

2) It will never go dark in a convenient place!

3) When you desperately need a flashlight, either you won’t be able to find one, or you’ll find one, but one only capable of throwing off a weak, yellow glimmer (as batteries die)!

So, I love having flashlights everywhere!

Even if for no other purposed than to look under my bed for dropped change, or to make sure I’m seeing the ‘bottom step’ when descending stairs (a truly serious threat, and one far more likely to maim/kill you than confronting violent felons).

Even inexpensive flashlights suffice for most non-tactical purposes. While not the ideal pistol-aid, they are just fine for finding your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or for not falling down stairs, as noted above.

When you must call the police at night, and are waiting for them to arrive, you will likely have a flashlight in your hand. Wave the flashlight back and forth in order to signal them, but don’t otherwise point your flashlight directly at an approaching beat-car.

Make it easy for them to quickly identify, not only whom they are looking for, who likely made the call, but also that you do not represent any kind of threat to them!

While of course, our first priority is decreasing personal risk-exposure from VCAs, it is equally important to reduce the chance that you will be will be shot by well-intentioned, but nervous, responding officers, who mis-identify the caller as a threat.

Why not make it REALLY EASY for responding LEOs to promptly conclude that there is no reason to see you as any kind of menace to them?

You will likely be cautiously approached by armed and apprehensive LEOs in any event. I am attracted to the idea of making it a simple matter for officer(s) to ID me as ‘the caller,’ and not the suspect!

Common sense is our most powerful ‘concealed weapon!’

So much of what we train and prepare for is shooting quickly and effectively, also avoiding shooting altogether, when appropriate.

All well and good, but we must remember that a simple noise-complaint may result in LEOs showing up, fully armed and armored, and not knowing what they are walking into.

To paraphrase:

‘Lord, shine thy ever-loving light on me!’”

Comment: Tactical flashlights (500 lumens or brighter) by Firstlight, Streamlight, Insight, Surefire, Olight, Eagtac, Powertac, et al are all very acceptable, and recommended. But, less expensive flashlights, from Coast for example, are easy to have on you all the time, and will suffice for most non-tactical purposes.

As my Instructor in TX commented, you can’t have too many!

/John