
Self Defense Flashlights
Rob PincusDescription
Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Now, we're here in one of the classrooms at the Memorial Shooting Center to look at the different types of options we have when it comes to flashlights to be integrated with our low light pistol defense. There are a variety of different kind of lights, almost too many types of lights to be able to wade through all of them and decide which one is the best. So let's look at the fundamentals of flashlights, particularly fighting flashlights, and understand exactly the things that are important to us. One of the first things we wanna understand is that the flashlight is originally meant to find and identify targets.
It's there to help us see our way around obstacles, find people hiding in the dark, identify people that are coming towards us in the dark, and again, whether that's a family member, a friend, an innocent bystander, or a threat, the flashlight still serves the same purpose. So to look at the flashlight as solely a fighting tool is really to miss the point. This is your fighting tool. This is something that helps you use your fighting tool when you need to defend yourself, and you're not sure who else is with you in a dark environment. Finding and identifying targets.
That's our primary use of the flashlight. Now, we've talked about intermittent and indirect flashlight use, and we've talked about integrating that intermittent and indirect flashlight use with our firearm for potential self defense situations. Maybe when we're moving to secure another family member, when we're escorting our family members away from a threat, or moving ourselves away from a threat, or simply when we're standing by and someone's coming towards us, and we want to know if they are friend or foe. With all that in mind, we want certain convenience factors to be present with our flashlight that we choose. For one thing, we wanna be sure that we can have the flashlight with us.
Something like a belt clip as we see here, something like a belt clip as we have on this L-shaped flashlight may make it much easier for us to carry. The fact is, it's hard to beat the convenience of a tube style flashlight when it comes to convenient carry. We can take this flashlight and attach it to our belt, we can put it in our pocket, we can put it in a cargo pocket, we can put it just about anywhere and it's going to be relatively easy to carry, especially in this small size. Even if we move to a larger tube flashlight, one that includes a lanyard feature which we like to have for a defensive or tactical flashlight, it's still very easy to put that into our pocket, either lens up or lens down, however we wanna train to bring it out and be able to use it. Or in that cargo pocket.
Again, on this one we particularly don't have the belt clip, but something like a belt clip could be added, or flashlights of this size certainly do come with belt clips. Convenience. Knowing that we'll be able to carry the flashlight and that we will carry the flashlight, and have it with us when we need it, is an important fundamental concept when it comes to understanding what to look for in a flashlight. Another one is going to be ease of use and activation. By far, the easiest way to activate a flashlight is going to be with large motor skill grasping pressure that comes from thumb pressure.
If we look at the old style flashlights, it had buttons on the tube itself, we'd position it so that it was on the top of the flashlight and we could press down. This position doesn't lend itself well to acting with the flashlight here in the center of our body. Where we'd be using the firearm, where we're most likely to have our hands in a situation for defense, where we'd be searching. It works really well down here, some place where we probably don't want to have our hands, and it can also work really well if we flip the flashlight upside down and put pressure up on that button from up here. But it doesn't work really well in the area we normally use our hands.
Right in front of our chest, or in front of our head, especially if we're integrating with that firearm use for intermittent and indirect searching. The tail cap activation, a switch built into the back of the flashlight where we can press to illuminate, actually works really well. Of course, most switches are also gonna have a constant on option, where we can press a little harder, and we know that the flashlight's going to stay on, press again, we're gonna be able to release, or we can do the intermittent press and release to be able to have a situation where we don't have a constant on situation. The larger flashlight's going to work exactly the same way. Now this L-shaped flashlight is a flashlight that I started using a little over a year ago, and I've really grown to like.
It's very convenient to carry in the hand, it's very easy to use, and we still have a gross motor skill grasping motion that we use to turn the flashlight on, when we press this large button set against the top of the flashlight. Now, when the original L-shaped lights came out, they were much smaller than this, the modern versions. Now of course, we may remember the old C-cell and D-cell versions that were much larger. Those larger flashlights were designed to be worn on military gear, or held and used in a more administrative setting. This medium size version, not quite as small as the versions that were awkward and hard to control and really only meant to be worn, and not an awkward as the large versions, which are very cumbersome and use an antiquated style of battery.
This medium size version is a great option for integrating really well with a firearm when we're searching intermittent and indirectly, or bringing it together with the firearm in the situation where we need to shoot, and wanna be able to illuminate exactly where we're pointing the firearm. Other lights, like this one, this small LED light, which is incredibly bright once we activate it, actually gives us the opportunity to again attach the light to ourselves. Now, while I'm not a fan of attaching the light and turning it on constantly, it does work as a great backup. So if I grab my firearm, I grab my primary flashlight, and this light were strapped onto me, especially if my family was trying to follow me through a dark area, maybe I strap it onto my back and leave it illuminated. This little LED is a great administrative light, a great utility light, and also could be a great service in a tactical situation.
These lights, a typical ChemLight, chemical stick, which is designed to be illuminated once and last for several hours simply by cracking and breaking it, can be used to illuminate a room, maybe your safe room, particularly illuminating a room when electricity's out, when the power's been cut. You can get into a situation where if you've secured yourself in the room and you absolutely need light, or maybe you've got younger family members who don't understand, that aren't comfortable with a dark situation, and need to have some level of illumination to make them feel better, maybe to help them to remain quiet and calm in the face of adversity when you have a threat coming your way, crack the ChemLight, throw it into the corner of the room, maybe even under a blanket with those family members, and this could be a great opportunity to have some light in an emergency situation. This is not a ChemLight, but it's designed to work in exactly the same way. This small LED that's completely sealed in this gel material can be activated, of course in a variety of colors, and then attached with Velcro as a marker so that people know where you are or left in a room to illuminate, again, for those family members who are uncomfortable with the dark. Maybe in certain situations you can also use this to mark a room that you had already been through, or that you had already seen or already checked.
Maybe you want your family to know where they should move to, you're gonna throw this into your safe room, go down to their area, tell them to move quickly back to the blue light, get them secure, you could stay there, maintain watch over a stairwell, corner, or even a window to make sure they can move safely. Marker lights are another great opportunity to use light to enhance your safety and your family's safety in an emergency situation. Remember the fundamentals. You want a light that's convenient to carry, easy to use, and when it comes to a fighting light, you also should stick with the minimum of 60 lumens. Most professionals agree that that's the minimum amount of light to be used if you intend to distract or disable somebody's ability to see you with that light by shining it into their eyes.
It's very easy to find a 60 lumen light in a small, compact, convenient, easy to use package. Once you do get a light, make sure you practice with it, integrate with your firearm, and learn to use it separately. You wanna be able to use it efficiently in those dynamic critical incidents that occur in low light situations. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.
where can i get the text for this 8 minute video and the websites for ordering these flashlights?
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