A Rant Regarding Weapon Lights
I use a TRR8 with a Streamlight TLR 3.
I like the steel 627's too and they work fine but the light attachment on the TRR8 seals the deal for me.
Regarding weapon lights and lights. Here are a few of my considerations and concerns.
1. THERE ARE AS MANY CONS TO THE USE OF WHITE LIGHT AS THERE ARE PROS
As Delta Force former operator Larry Vickers puts it, "I have discovered that there are as many cons to the use of white light at night as there are pros. White light is without peer as a tool to identify threats and target discriminate; however it can also be used against you by illuminating your position for the enemy. This potentially fatal flaw is often overlooked or not fully understood in the world of tactical training as we know it today."
As a result, you have manufacturers just encouraging people to buy rather than asking if you buy, will you take the necessary training so the light is an asset and not a potentially lethal liability.
2. YOU MUST HAVE SPECIAL TRAINING OR CHANCES ARE YOU ARE A TARGET
While there are numerous legitimate uses for a weapon light (executing a no-knock warrant on a team e.g.), in a civilian self-defense application, generally they will make you a target unless you have had the right training in how to employ them without you yourself becoming a target. Too often the untrained just leave their weapon light on because of the false security it provides and use it as if their searching for a lost item. Tritium sites are generally enough unless the light is just too low. Use your light as a last resource and with the proper training.
3. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE HV TECHNIQUE IS?
If you don't know how to use a light to get the guy to shoot the spot where you just left, you may have a lack of training. That particular skill is called the, 'HV technique' and is basic to weapon light / flash light tactical training. The HV technique involves special manipulation of a light accompanied by movement.
Developed by Vickers and Hackathon, it has also been called the 'flashbulb technique'. May I respectfully say that if you have a weapon light or even a flashlight you use with your weapon, and the HV discipline is unfamiliar to you, you have perhaps a liability level lack of training. Not legal liability - health liability. The light manufacturers will never tell you this. The ops guys fighting at night in low light will.
4. IMMEDIATE SELF DEFENSE NEEDS GENERALLY WON'T HAVE TIME OR NEED FOR A WEAPON LIGHT:
In a typical street robbery, carjacking, home invasion, or similar crime resulting in a need for immediate self defense, there will be neither the time nor the need to deploy a weapon light or flashlight as much as their manufacturers will deny that. These events simply do not take place in total darkness, the distance involved is typically under seven feet, and in a low light environment.
5. HAVING A PLAN AS A HOMEOWNER:
You the homeowner should know the layout of the home, the location of choke points and obstacles, and have a general plan of action built on that knowledge. You won't need the flashlight for navigation. The primary purpose of the flashlight for the homeowner will be target identification and target discrimination. In other words, you the armed homeowner need to know for certain if that is an intruder in the hallway or your teenage son sneaking in after curfew.
6. THERE ARE WORSE THINGS THAN BEING SHOT - KILLING YOUR SPOUSE OR CHILD ACCIDENTALLY IS ONE OF THEM.
Brutal statistic: weapons bought for home defense are more likely to be used accidentally against a family member than on an intruder. There are worse things than being shot, and killing your own child or spouse is one of them. Today with weapon lights being in vogue, we now have multiple cases of people trying to activate their lights, and in extreme stress they instead discharged their weapon shooting someone.
There are numerous cases of cops making this mistake, so much so that the Force Science Institute said gun-mounted flashlights are implicated in an overall increase of accidental police shootings.
Anyway, if you are trying to light up the shadowy figure in the hall, but shoot your child unintentionally, you will have to live with the consequences.
How does this happen?
7. Civilians and cops are sometimes using their trigger finger to activate their lights either having no idea that the practice is wrong or not being cognizant that they are doing that. As Sam Preston points out, that has three consequences: 1.) By activating the light with your trigger finger you may lose valuable time when making a deadly force decision. 2.) Accidently turning on your light when you needed to pull the trigger. 3.) Accidently discharging your weapon when you intended to turn on your light.
8. Weapon lights should be activated with the thumb of your non-dominate hand, and then you should be drawing daily to forge the correct muscle memory. Few homeowners are going to train with the light on the gun to the point of learning to work the switches without getting a finger near the trigger, particularly under high stress. Then of course there's the phenomena of trigger searching, even among the highly trained.
9. MANUFACTURERS HAVE AN AGENDA: SELL YOU WHAT THEY ARE MAKING
Some civilians seem to love tactical gear and will often buy it without taking the necessary training to make it a tool and not a life-threatening liability. That's not your fault. That doesn't matter when you're buying 5.11 Tactical Pants at Gander Mountain. It matter when it's your weapon. Manufacturers market this stuff with articles like selecting the best light by SureFire. But please remember: "Whenever you alter something about a lethal piece of gear — like adding a rail-mounted light — you have to include the appropriate level of training." Sam Preston, 21 year LE trainer.
10. THE LIGHT IS A PROACTIVE INSTRUMENT, THE HANDGUN IS A REACTIVE INSTRUMENT
Here is a major principle; there is a distinct difference between the low light needs of a SWAT police officer or a military door kicker (who are both quite often tasked with going into dark places to actively seek out bad guys) and the role of the private citizen in self defense. Because the flashlight is a "proactive instrument," whereas the handgun in self-defense is a "reactive instrument." And so without special training, they can be inherently incompatible in your hands. BTW, LE training generally teaches weapon lights have two and only two functions: 1. Identify threats. 2. Searches in Force Situations. That's it.
11. WHITE LIGHT CAN EQUAL BULLET SPONGE
In our agency State training we were taught to use white weapon light extremely sparingly if at all. Tritium sites are by far the preferred method if your eyes can identify targets using ambient lighting. There is no better way to announce to the world your exact location during periods of low light than turning on a white light. It gives the enemy an exact fix on your whereabouts and can turn your white light into a bullet sponge.
Even some law enforcement agencies can wrongly teach that once you have a subject illuminated you should keep it illuminated. That technique works well if you know you only have one threat; however if there are other threats nearby it is good way to become a human bullet trap. Use your white light conservatively until you have a definite handle on who you're up against. You can always use more white light if needed – it is much more difficult to teach yourself to use less.
12. MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THE DANGER OF LIGHT
In 2009 city LE had chased an armed subject through the bank he just robbed, through an adjacent retirement facility, and finally in to a wooded area. Myself and another State officer showed up just as the guy had hit the woods. It was dusk, within another 20 minutes we had like 30 officers from city, county, state, and federal showed up from Birmingham. No one was stupid enough to activate a light, any light. We established a perimeter and waited for the county's thermal imaging to show up. Still didn't find the guy, just saw a lot of orange dots that was the body heat of birds in the trees, so when I left they were just sitting the perimeter until sunrise when they went in and got him the next morning.
Brutally long, sorry guys. But I feel better.
Personally, I've never felt the need for a tactical light at home. IMO, nite sights are sufficient for my low-light environment. Plus, I've memorized the location of all the claymores, and that's tacti-cool enough for me 
