Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/739629
In FRAG OUT! #10 I have been comparing several popular handgun flashlights, as a result of a period of researching the use of light (integral or external) while firing a handgun, mostly in self-defense scenarios. Shooting in the dark, or twilight is not an easy, darkness reduces the visibility range and makes identification of the target a hard task. In this article I would not dwell again in the hard- ware – instead I'd present different external light holding techniques while shooting pistol. This sub- ject should be important for a conscious armed cit- izen, as statistically the majority of life-threatening situations have a way of occurring during the time of limited visibility: in twilight or dark. And I'm not talking about terrorist attacks, but just common in- trusions and robberies. The low light shooting is the common subject of the series of trainings – shooting workshops, where attendees have the opportunity to test various assisted lighting shooting techniques in safe environment. Before we start discussing various techniques, let us explain what are the main purposes of using the light in tactical situation: Ä Searching - searching for things, persons, threats; Ä Navigation - lighting one's way to find exit or just avoid banging one's head on the obstacles; Ä Threat identification - simple IFF: identification friend or foe; Ä Control - in police work strong light is used to blind the suspect and reduce his situational awareness to cover the approach by the officer intending on closing in and taking physical control of the suspect; Ä Communication - pointing the way or pointing the threats to the other team members. Considering the above, it is fair to wonder if the weapon-mounted light are really the ideal solution for all of these. Perhaps having an external light is better in many cases, after all. To stress the point, let us consider a following 'tactical' scenario: You are returning home late in the evening, it's dark, as the light-bulb in the corridor had just dead and in the process you trip over the lady-neighbor's bicycle. Now you have to put back the damned thing and find your way around it to your door – so you draw your piece with a tactical light under the dust cov- er. It's the recent model of the leading brand, what else would you ever need, right? At that moment the neighbor hearing the rumor outside opens her door and stares right into a muzzle of a guy mov- ing stealthily along the corridor with his gun at the ready. Now stretch your imagination just a little bit to imagine what happened next...Convinced to have external light instead? So let's move on to the light holding techniques. There's quite a number of these, and some are differing only in minuscule details, so let me choose only those most characteristic. Most of them are called after their inventors – a veritable Who's Who of tactical handgunning. TRAINING