Flashlights, Lasers and Radios Oh My!

Engagement with all three and some legalities you may not know.

Since I've worked on many ranges, I see basic recruits negotiate little obstacles that I had gotten complacent with. I also see advanced students that fumble old tricks. One of these simplistic tasks would be how to engage a target with a flashlight. We teach the Ayoob and Harries techniques when engaging with but then I see students of all varieties getting all botched up on the simple technique of drawing one's sidearm and discharging it accurately in a low light situation without a flashlight at first then with a flashlight. If you want to know more about the Ayoob or Harries methods, then I'd suggest watching a YouTube vid and seeing the video demonstrated. It'll be far easier than for me to articulate them in words. I like the Harries method the best because it's quick and simple without really having to manipulate your fingers this way or that way and it can be done with a simple Maglight or that fancy button switch Surefire that I have. Unfortunately, it's been known to happen but just make sure you swing your support arm underneath and don't shoot your arm. Some folks just insist on proving Darwin right. The scenario is simple. It's dark and you don't have a flashlight/torch. What does one do? Simply put; engage! There is no secret squirrel technique. Distance is a variable in this but it is not as important as accuracy & shot placement. After your first shot, your hearing will be not as useful as it would be before that shot which could help a lot in a low light situation and your natural night vision is gone.

Scenario; You are investigating that bump in the night and stupidly forgot your flashlight beside the bed. You bring your standard handgun with no night sights and go looking for possible trouble. You find your backdoor slightly ajar and under low light, you cannot distinctly see your Tango's outline but what you do see is a weapon in his or her hands. Gun, knife or club. It'll still hurt. You scream out to them to drop the weapon; they flinch and bring their weapon up towards you and you fire three shots center of mass that stop them completely. Your Wife and Neighbors hear the gunshots and then call the authorities as you cover your target until the police arrive as your Tango lay bleeding.

Let's break this down. The legalities regarding this scenario may or may not conform to your jurisdiction's set of laws. This is of course an example and may be totally different in the state that you live. Here, we have the Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground Law.

In other states, you MUST flee your house. I think that's BS but that's how they're written.

As this scenario plays out...you verbally engaged your Tango to drop the weapon. This would be confirmed by witnesses later on. You didn't fire until they pointed their weapon at you or came at you with that knife or club/environmental weapon. You shot at them just enough so they were incapacitated. Some would fire, reload and fire again. Your verbalization is important because witness testimony does count as you've recently seen. Reloading and shooting the Tango again is technically a big no-no. Another big thing is a warning shot. I'm sure that most of you know that this is not a good idea. Most times you'll get charged for discharging a firearm i*****lly. The phrase "Shoot to Kill" is BS and Hollywood based. Look at Arias. If she said it was self defense and shot her BF two or three times, that's reasonable. How she did it wasn't and showed extreme malice and ill intent. This would be difficult to explain why in a court. Most of us have been trained to shoot center of mass and if you took a Tango out with a noggin shot, discharging your firearm once, you'll still have to answer a few more questions than not. Once a attorney for the defendant asked a friend of mine why did you shoot my client four times? My buddy answered, because he didn't stop the first three times I shot at them. Legally speaking, that's totally understandable and legal.


There are some safety factors to think about as well. Imagine me, the cop, the firearms instructor, the former overseas Dark Sith and professional soldier. You would naturally assume correctly that I've received some pretty interesting training in my past. With the amount of training I've had it would be hard to say that I was scared of the 120 lb female that was very drunk after she slapped me with an open hand and she was unarmed. I was in imminent fear that she'd kill me so I shot her once in the forehead. How would that look? Get my meaning? Now imagine the 22 year old nursing student that lives alone that's 120 lbs with the revolver that her Dad gave her before she moved to the big city to go to school. Do you see the difference? That is a articulable situation that must be evaluated during the investigation.

Imagine you're the arriving first responder and you started taking statements with the few different types of Tangos below. What would you look for? ;

- A hardened Criminal with a rap sheet a mile long with a i*****l firearm.
- A confused teenage girl that weighs in at a hefty 100 lbs with her cell phone.
- The crazed Meth head that didn't have a weapon at all and merely wanders in the house.

The Criminal with a rap sheet is a no brainer. You screamed out to drop their weapon and after two challenges, they didn't comply and they pointed their weapon at you. This is a good shoot. We hear of this scenario many times every week.

The Teenager that was very disoriented and due to the low light, the non compliance to the challenges and what you thought was a firearm, if this situation can be articulated honestly. It's still a good shoot although it will be heavily scrutinized. A situation like this has happened before and although it may not look good, under the spirit of most laws, this is a good shoot but that would be determined after a lengthy legal process.

The Meth head with no weapon at all is dicey. There would be corroborating evidence from the witnesses that a verbal challenge was shouted out a few times. There should be a lot of physical evidence that the Tango was indeed violent and non compliant. There's a lot of grey here.

The reason to shoot as a regular guy is a common link to all three types; the shooter or potential victim was in imminent fear that v******e was imminent and that the Tango would cause serious injury or possible death to them or anyone in the immediate area. Is it justified? It really depends on the articulating circumstances of the situation as a whole. The story of the shooter and witnesses should be parallel with the physical evidence of the situation. If it doesn't, there will be a lot to answer for as you have just seen in the GZ case. Every case is different, there are no two stories exactly the same. Every case is scrutinized with a fine tooth comb and as you've seen in the GZ case, every aspect is gone over and over and there's a lot of post-event quarterbacking afterwards.


Therefore, the shooter used deadly force which is defined as any action or event that would cause serious injury or death.

Regarding the shoot at night, just because you didn't have a flashlight didn't mean you didn't have to shoot. You were committed into the fight and if one is forced, do it with extreme prejudice. I've shot at the range at night many times. It's still unnatural. To shoot at something you really can't see well. Plus, not many of us will have the opportunity to do that at a regular range. Most of us will only have the regular range to go to and they aren't open past dusk. As crazy as it may sound, you will be more accurate especially in closer distances. We tend to actually use our sights correctly when we shoot at night in comparison to daylight shooting. I know it sounds flaky but you will notice that quirk if you shoot at night.

Simply said, you employ your weapon safely, aim the best you can and when it's applicable, discharge it into the area of greater mass. There's no fancy trickshots here. Just sheer fight. Fire into the greater mass and incapacitate your target. Shoot as many times as possible until the target stops what they were doing. You win the fight. If you have to reload, do it. Just make sure to find cover too.

When I taught students before, to simulate night conditions, I had them don welder's goggles. It worked but it was lackluster but nothing simulates night shooting like real night. With all my other techniques I've written about, you will know that I will tweak any advantage when get in a fight. Once my hand is forced to get in a fight, then fight with all you can to send them too the Void. It's that way on the range and in real life. It's You or Them right?

When adding a flashlight to your engagement kit your natural instinct much like a laser is to center it before you fire. If you've ever worked with a laser you know you've taken a few seconds getting that perfect shot. Many will do the same thing with a flashlight. Considering that a qualification course will have a round a fire in as little as three seconds, you could miss your opportunity. In real life, three seconds is a lifetime in a furball.



Flashlights merely illuminate, you get the general area of your Tango. Don't take extra time trying to perfectly center that light. Ensure that there is a very good reason to shoot and engage! Don't bother trying to center the light upon them because you could get a very nasty response if you take to much time.

Lasers are not really meant for dead on tack driving! It is a flashlight in a very small way. Aim small, miss small thinking. It is a reference tool that spares the Mk I eyeball from doing real aiming. If you can get that dot onto your target, that means your round should be going in that general area. This is much like using that flashlight. Remember, combat is combat. You will not get any extra points for neatness. You win by surviving.

Radios are not usually in the everyday guy's kit but you do have a cellphone or a phone in the house as you call 911 and with all three categories, they all work both ways. Could your radio or phone ring or go off at the most inopportune moment? How embarrassing is it during the meeting or the theater? Imagine how deadly it could be in a night time engagement. This means is that once you use that flashlight, laser or radio your Tango will have a good idea where you are if not know exactly where you are. I advise that if you have to deploy any of these items, you'd better have a pretty good idea of what you're doing because you will tip your hand most of the time.

You know that old Infantry Murphy's Law of Tracers and they work both ways? Well the three listed above could also tip your hand very quickly as well. Most of us can negotiate the big things because sometimes they're out of our control or that it's vague enough for us to manipulate things here or there but let me advocate that it's the small attention to detail things that will get us hurt or killed or worse; get someone else killed. Take the extra time to square away your world. For example; it's late at night and you woke up in bed from a clatter downstairs and you quietly move downstairs with your pistol and flashlight in a pair of skivvies in comparison to waking up on your Lazy Boy with a pocketful of jingling change doing the same thing. I would argue that that jingling pocketful of crap will be your downfall. Use your head before and during the fight.

Just as a passing thought, remember the movie The Bodyguard? Costner chases a bad guy around and he's getting pinged at. He closes his eyes and listens and fires? Remember that? Granted that most of us don't have a 30 acre spread in snow covered Montana or where ever the hell he was but use of sound will help you align a shot pretty well. The only thing I know is that after the first gunshot, he would not be able to hear the sound of the bad guy's feet hitting the snow. It is a short range technique and there's not a training technique that I know of that can teach a student this skill. There are a few elite places like Gunsite, Moyock and Quantico that does do some sort of training like this but it is a limited skill that should be used sparingly and only when you have nothing to lose because like another article I wrote; if you can shoot at them, they can shoot at you. Just remember, after your first shot your hearing will be damaged and you will advertise to anyone within 100 ft. where you are. It only multiplies the effect if it's in low light conditions. Shoot, scoot and loot. In low light, I would suggest shoot and scoot. No reason to give your Tango a good target either, why prove Darwin right? Let the Tango prove it.