Hi Ken,
I can't tell you how often I get this one. I suppose there are a lot of personnel preferences when it comes to visual aid mounted systems.
Shoulder fired weapons as well as hand guns mounted with laser or light works in some, not all, situations.
The laser mounts tend to hit me negatively. They are, after all, subject to mis- alignment due to many causes, i.e. collision barrel mounts mis- align due to heat etc. The concept of a light beam indication on the target forces one to visually focus off the front site and that should be all that is said to kill the argument but the fact of the matter is that the well mounted laser projector, properly sighted in, will adequately indicate the bore axis in relation to desired point of impact. The problems arise when the inevitable mis-alignment occurs, the shooter has no reference to the mis-alignment as he or she is not looking at the front site while acquiring the dot location out at the target surface. Sure this can be done during pre-op or admin time but it sure as hell won't be done during the combat period - trust me. Secondly you need only to be in a room entry once with two or more shooters waving the dot system all over the place. Looks like DISCO and worse - which one is mine? Finally, the ambient light conditions must be favorable in order to see the projected laser dot.
Mounted light systems both in the visual spectrum as well as IR are great aids to low light shooting scenarios. Sure the negatives are there, bulky - position indication - etc., but law enforcement as well as tactical military teams need to identify, positively , the threat level they face before escalating to lethal force. This can't be done in low or no light situations without the use of white light. So why not mount the light on the weapon where it is an integral part of the sighting system? IR mounted systems are excellent with the use compatible optics such as the ITT pocket IR scopes.
Our flat top AR carbines are fitted with GG&G's extended Picatiny Rails with flip up rear site. This accommodates the mount of either an Aim Point red dot optic (Comp M- XD) or Trijicon's Reflex as both are compatible with night vision gear as the reticle will not "Bloom" in the IR. One simply mounts the Pocket Scope at the rear of the rail thereby converting the Aim point or Trijicon optic to night gear. Both optics allow for iron site use as a back up to electronics. I've seen no better sighting combination offering this much flexibility. Try it - you'll like it.