Tam has thoughts on weapon-mounted lights following a story of an ND by an NYPD ESU officer during the recent takeover at Columbia.

I have a flashlight mounted on my normal carry piece. I’ve heard the arguments back and forth, but my logic comes down to this:

  1. There’s a strong likelihood that if I’m going to need my weapon outside the home, it will be in a low-light environment.
  2. If I’m going to need my weapon outside the home, I do not want to be juggling more devices than necessary.

However, as shown in the linked story, there is an inherent danger of using a WML as a flashlight instead of illumination for your weapon. A flashlight is for searching, a WML is for better view of a target.

This is why I have a separate flashlight. That is for searching around when it’s dark. My WML should only go on if my weapon is out. And my weapon should only be out if there is a strong possibility I’m going to need to use it.