Caleb Giddings gives some advice on adding a weapon mounted light and laser on your home defense gun.

1. “You’ll give away your position!”
Who is breaking into your house, Spetznaz? Are you laying at the top of the stairs in ambush? Seriously, unless you’re creeping from room to room trying to do a solo clear of your house at 2am why do you care about giving away your position? I don’t know about you, but my position is going to be pretty clearly given away by me shouting “I HAVE A GUN AND I’M CALLING THE COPS DON’T COME UP HERE I’M AFRAID FOR MY LIFE” on the line with the 911 operator.

2. “If it’s so dark you can’t see the target, you shouldn’t be shooting.”
You’re an idiot if you believe this. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF HAVING LIGHTS, to make it less dark. Also because 200 lumens in the eyes of Johnny Scumbag might actually make him reconsider some life choices, and maybe you won’t have to drill him. Later we can have the discussion about weapon mounted lights for searching vs hand-held lights and the various advantages/disadvantages, but seriously, white lights make it a lot easier to hit the thing you’re aiming at because you can see it.

3. “You can just turn a light on”
Okay. So you turn the light on in whatever room you’re in, but Mr. Home Invader is a room with the lights off. Have you ever tried looking into a dark room from a well lit one? You can’t see diddly. Point 200 lumens of justice into that room, and you can see plenty.

The truth is that most of the objections to lights and lasers on HD guns come from two kinds of people: 1) people with mall ninja fantasies about single person house clearing or ambushing a home invader at the top of the stairs and 2) people who’ve never fired a gun in low/no light situations. The first group are just idiots and can generally be ignored, but the second group, well, that can be fixed.

Read the rest of his post here.

Back when I was living in NY, I challenged my shooting club to shoot in the dark during our indoor pistol action matches. It helped open some of the members minds to how difficult it is to shoot with a flashlight, and at the same time, how helpful it was to shoot with one.

During the annual Zombie Match in Pittsburgh, PA it is a dark shoot. You have to use a laser, light, or NODs to engage the targets. Having a laser and light helps tremendously. As Caleb suggests, try it if you can. I am fortunate that my new club allows us to shoot up until 11pm and I have opportunities to shoot in the dark frequently.