I'm not a huge fan of lasers, not because they don't work for some people, but rather because I find the dot and my own hand tremors to be an aiming distraction. My hands don't shake any more than anybody else's, but everybody's shake a little bit. That shaking causes the dot to dance around a bit, and I find that this movement of the dot is a distraction which affects my shooting negatively.Silent Professional wrote:Laser won't help you I.D. the potential threat. Neither will those sexy, glow in the dark night sights. Only a white light flashlight or weapon mounted light will do that. Unless you like shooting things that you have not positively I.D.'ed.
I am, however, a proponent of the poorly named "night sights," which would be more more aptly called "low-light sights." I don't believe in shooting at that which you cannot see, and my pistol gets a tactical light with an available strobe setting mounted to it before I set it on the nightstand for the night. But it is not hard to imagine a scenario in light low enough in which a set of tritium sights would make it easier to pick up a good sight picture, even though you might still be able to clearly see your target: ie dimly-lit parking structure, dawn, dusk, transitioning from a brightly-lit room into low light, etc., etc.
I can think of a dozen restaurants near me whose outdoor parking lots are brightly enough illuminated at night to clearly see an assailant, but dim enough that these 60 year old eyeballs would benefit from having tritium sights. So yeah, you're absolutely correct that night sights won't help you identify a target, but they can absolutely help you to acquire a proper sight picture in less than ideal conditions, so you shouldn't be quite so dismissive of them.
I don't carry my weapon light with me when I'm out and about for the simple reasons that if won't fit in my holster,and it takes too long to mount to be useful in most SD scenarios outside the home. The small 360 lumen pocket flashlight with strobe that I carry would be far more useful. Also, the night sights on my EDC pistol have a large red phosphorescent ring around the front tritium insert, and the rear tritium inserts are mounted in a flat black serrated surface like a target sight so that you don't really see them in bright daylight. In sunlight, that red phosphorescent ring on the front sight glows almost as brightly as one of those fiber optic inserts, and as transition into lower light, it continues to glow for a while until it dims and the tritium takes over. Head and shoulders the best sights on any of my handguns.
With regard to equipping a HD shotgun with an aiming accessory, absolutely go with a weapon light over a laser aiming device. It will prove to be far more useful, not to mention providing you with a tactical advantage if it has a strobe included.
