Before we begin, here's a run down of my "house guns":
HK Tactical with UTL light
Glock 17 with M3 light
870 with Surefire light
See the pattern??? (Hint: they all have weapon-mounted lights)
Also bedside, I keep a Surefire 9P handheld. Lying in bed last night, I was going over house clearing strategy in my head. I thought to myself...does having a weapon-mounted light really provide an advantage over having just a handheld light? Tactically, I can see the advantage in that it frees up a hand (for two hand shooting, opening doors, etc.), but I can also see a serious potential drawback - I would be required to point my gun at whatever I want to illuminate. I was always trained to never point a gun at anything you didn't want to shoot (even if my finger was off the trigger). Looking even deeper, there are also potential legal issues involved.
You can see my dilemna.
Should I just switch to the handheld? To me, I figure, once I put that light on the gun, it becomes a "combat" weapon as opposed to a "self defense" weapon and the potential legal ramifications of using a weapon-mounted light in a home defense shooting can (and usually do) work against me.
Please share your thoughts/opinions.
Thanks in advance!
p.s. - What do you use in your home?
HK Tactical with UTL light
Glock 17 with M3 light
870 with Surefire light
See the pattern??? (Hint: they all have weapon-mounted lights)
Also bedside, I keep a Surefire 9P handheld. Lying in bed last night, I was going over house clearing strategy in my head. I thought to myself...does having a weapon-mounted light really provide an advantage over having just a handheld light? Tactically, I can see the advantage in that it frees up a hand (for two hand shooting, opening doors, etc.), but I can also see a serious potential drawback - I would be required to point my gun at whatever I want to illuminate. I was always trained to never point a gun at anything you didn't want to shoot (even if my finger was off the trigger). Looking even deeper, there are also potential legal issues involved.
You can see my dilemna.
Should I just switch to the handheld? To me, I figure, once I put that light on the gun, it becomes a "combat" weapon as opposed to a "self defense" weapon and the potential legal ramifications of using a weapon-mounted light in a home defense shooting can (and usually do) work against me.
Please share your thoughts/opinions.
Thanks in advance!
p.s. - What do you use in your home?