Any time we teach one of our Lowlight Handgun or Home Defense (Handgun) courses we make sure we tell students that they need to have a “right” side technique and a “left” side technique when they are using a handheld light. Right/left generally refers to which side of the gun we have the light on. For right side techniques, the light will be on the right side of the pistol and for left side techniques, you guessed it; the handheld light is on the left side of the pistol.
We need to have techniques that address both sides of the gun for the simple reason that having the light on the appropriate side of the gun allows us to put light past a barrier (car, door frame, wall, etc) instead of having the majority of the light dumping into the barrier directly in front of us. Doing this allows us to make the most of the handheld light’s output which enables to visually clear areas and conduct positive identification (PID) of individuals that we encounter. Below are photos taken from our most recent Home Defense (Force on Force) course that was held at the ForceTec facility.
Notice how the light shines mostly into the wall
More light into the wall and notice the shadows in the room that’s being cleared.
Now the light is on the appropriate side of the gun and there is much less light being cast onto the wall in front of the student.
Now virtually all of the light is going into the room and not on to the wall.
As you can see; if the light is on the appropriate side of the gun, we have much more light shining into the area we are clearing and not on the wall in front of us. Obviously this blog post doesn’t address different specific light techniques; for that information feel free to attend a class and do some research.
Until next time………..