THE DARK ISN’T YOUR FRIEND
Weapon-mounted lights have become quite common in recent years, yet there’s still a great deal of confusion and disagreement between competing schools of thought. So, let’s shed some light on, well … lights.
PRACTICALITY VS. FUNCTIONALITY
The main reason I divide handguns from rifles and shotguns in this discussion is based on the crucial factor of weight and real estate. It’s barely an afterthought to add a light to a shoulder arm, but it’s a deciding crossroads of utility on a handgun. It takes little, if any, imagination to mount a large, intense light onto a rifle these days; most modern handguards are covered in M-lok mounting surfaces, in years past it was mil-spec Picatinny.
In fact, the minutia has taken over to the point that there are dozens of companies producing various means to manage your cables and pressure switches. Lights on rifles are nearly at a pinnacle; the science, while never truly settled, is in a comfortable rut, and I don’t see that changing for some time.
When it comes to handguns, there’s a much larger issue of practicality: Not every
