The point of the pistol mounted flashlight is to light up what you have your gun pointed at. They are not just dragging out their guns to use the flashlight feature. However, this brings the potential of hitting the wrong switch (as we have now seen twice) and shooting someone you only intended to illuminate with the flash light instead of muzzle flash.Lonest4r wrote:This is a bad practice, officers should get out of the habit of using the light on their weapon to illuminate people or things they don't have the justification to use deadly force against. Kinda violates the rule about not pointing a gun a something you don't want to destroy. If you need a flashlight, carry a flashlight, but don't use your gun as your flashlight. The light is there to prevent non-threats from getting shot and to help officers place their shots better while avoiding collateral damage (and to momentarily blind dangerous suspects). It should not increase an innocent person's chance of being shot.
Bottom line, while these lights are good tools, better training and/or a more foolproof switch design (pressure pad on grip, etc.) will resolve these ND's.