I feel compelled to chime in. I have a light issued for my pistol but I do not use it. The only reason? I don't have a holster for it and i am too cheap to buy one. I frequently serve search warrants and often carry either a rifle (with a light) or a shield (with a light on it). If not one of the above, I can make do and shoot plenty good enough with a hand held flashlight.
I have an administration and firearms coordinator who have the opinion of "train to the lowest common denominator." While this should be a consideration at times, I don't feel like a weapons light is too hard to train to. The assumption is that officers will start to use their WML when they should use a flashlight. Because of this, they will not issue lights or holsters. If we want one we must buy our own. For a long time they refused to issue any weapons with rails (we literally ran 16 year old stamped slide p220s until last year other than a few newer models obtained as the agency grew). Now we finally have all new p227s with rails, but must purchase our own light and holster. Of course the light and holster must be approved by the firearms coordinator before he will qualify you with it. The cheapest option of holster/light combo on the approved list runs around 220 (cheapest light allowed is a stream light tlr-6), but it was much more until recently when the cheapest combo allowed was around 330 (surefire x300 being cheapest light option before). Yes... My agency wanted to keep everyone priced out.
I was one of two people who had a light issued because of my job function, but I had to buy a holster to utilize it (makes perfect sense, right?). Instead I let a K9 handler use it (he needs it more than I do when he's tracking on lead) and got in trouble for doing that. So yeah... There are agencies left out there that are very anti WML. I work for one but it has gotten better. At any rate, we have a few guys that use them despite my agencies efforts to discourage their use. I hope to be a firearms coordinator in a 5-10 years and I hope to stop the stupid games. Oh and I will carry a 1911 on duty then
I'm not of the opinion that everyone should be issued a pistol light. All agencies have a finite budget and some things (such as updated investigation tools, which we also lack) take precedence. I think anyone who wishes to purchase their own should be allowed to do so without jumping through hoops. Oh and holsters could be provided, or at least subsidized.