I normally don't get involved in weapon mounted light, WML, debates but this one is just so full of BS I'm going to, and I'm going to ruffle some feathers.
First the vast huge almost total majority of people posting here have no idea what they are talking about. Not to blow my own horn but I have 10 years as a Marine, 26 years with the third largest police Department in America, where I'm a firearms, tactics, and less lethal munitions instructor. I've also attended the FBI Law Enforcement Firearms instructor course and personnel been involved in hundreds of searches in the Watts district, with and without K9, for armed and wanted felony suspects both in the open and within buildings. I've testified in court as both a firearms and tactics expert.
So lets get started. To people who talking about they have tiny lights in their house and know the layout and don't need a light great. BUT your opinion is based on an extremely narrow set of circumstances, namely defending a known location and assuming anything/anyone in the location is a target. Almost every year there are stories of homeowners shooting and killing their son/daughter/girlfriend/wife/whatever because they ASSUME the shape moving is an intruder when really the kid is home from college/returning from a date with the kid the father doesn't like, off work early and forgot their key etc. Remember as the GOOD guys we can not just shoot at shapes, we have to know were engaging a real threat.
Next is the why would I have a light and give the bad guy something to shoot at, combined with I can shoot one handed and point my light with the other. FACT there is no faster way to get hits on a deadly threaten then with a WML, anything else is just shooting with one hand and holding a light with the other.
So lets look at some light/handgun (I'll forgo rifle/shotgun light discussion) techniques.
1. FBI technique. The oldest and most commonly referred to by people with no real training. I tongue in cheek refer to this as the Statue of Liberty technique. Hold light as high and as far out as possible with the support arm while pointing weapon one handed. Anyone who's used this technique for more then 5 minutes, while holding a 5 cell Mag light/Kel light, knows the light gets lower and closer to the body, leading to....
2. Modified FBI technique, sometimes called the turret technique. Basically rest the light on the shoulder and turn your entire body, shooting arm extended, sort of like a tank turret. Advantage of taking the weight off the arm AND depending on the light can throw light on the front sight, resulting in surprisingly good accuracy.
Those two are really the only ones where the support hand and light are NOT joined some way with the gun hand, so in other words over time people have found they want to hit what they are shooting at. Leading to...
Harries technique. A derivative of the Weaver technique. Instead of push/pull tension, it's side to side tension. The gun arm is extended straight out, upper body is sharply bladed,allowing the support hand and light to be brought UNDER the gun arm and the hands to meet back to back. Works with all types of lights.
Ayood Stressfire technique. Only works with lights with side switches. Basically light is held in support hand, palm up, thumb on switch, and support hand is brought to gun, base of thumb to base of thumb. Naturally angles the light slightly upwards, blinding anyone at closer ranges.
Chapman technique. Broadly similar to Stressfire. Thumb and first finger encircle the light, other three fingers grip the front of the gun hand, thumb controls lights. Again only works with lights with side switches. Levels out the light compared to the gun, giving better light control at ranges past 10 yards.
Surefire/Rogers technique. Requires both a rear pressure switch light and large "cigar" ring. Grip light between first and middle finger, grip gun in both hands. Tightening grip will cause the switch to be compressed, turning on light. Good accuracy and very natural but requires a specially set up light. Surefire sold their Z2 series just for this purpose.
Again these later techniques all join the light to the gun, with the intent to give some support to the gun hand and have the light and gun work together.
Now lets address the idea of not wanting to point a weapon at something you don't want to shoot, like you kid's bed.
Two points.
1. It's not WML or hand light, It's BOTH. There will always be situations where you want to use a light to see and don't want to bring a gun along. Fine, I fully agree, and I agree way to many people get sloppy/lazy with the WML and use it to look under the car seat for the dropped cell phone etc.
2. There is NO need to point a WML and weapon at the kid's bed to see if they are ok. This is an ignorant mindset, ignorant meaning people who say this have no first hand experience with current generation WML. My first light, circa 2004, was a first generation Streamlight TLR-1. Rated at 120 lumens, or about what my foot long SL20 could put out. Current lights from both major manufactures put out over 1,000 lumens, able to illuminate a small room by pointing almost anywhere in the room.
Finally, to those talking about a light drawing fire, yes I absolutely know what your saying. BUT like I said before we are suppose to be the good guys, We are not operating in a total free fire zone. We have to identify the threat BEFORE we can fire, and that does put us at a disadvantage. Sorry but that's the cost of being the good guy.
Feel free to respond, but if you do please have something factual and relevant to say.
Almost forgot to address the original questions. Yes, the Gen 3 Glock 22/23 were found to sometimes have issues when lights were attached. Super slo-mo video showed the frames flexed during recoil with the added weight and could, depending on the ammo, size/strength of the shooter, temperature etc cause malfunctions.
New plastic frame designs with steel subframes, such as the Smith MP, Sigs 320, use don't have this issue because of the subframe. Also Glock seems to have gotten this issue under control in Gen 4 and 5 guns.
On metal frame guns the only issue is how the rail is attached. Surefire made a rail for 1911s that used a special replacement slide stop. Others were made using super epoxy or rivets. Results varied, which is part of the reason Smith went to the forged and machined rail in their last runs of TSW guns.
I was thinking the same thing. Or raccoons in the campsite.
