INFORCE Blog — tactical

A flashlight can be used for more than just illumination. With enough candelas, they can be turned into viable self-defense tools. Notice how I use “candela” and not “lumen.” Lumens on a flashlight measure the amount of light, but candelas measure a light’s intensity. Take this into consideration: the average fluorescent light bulb has 2,000 lumens while an INFORCE Wild1 has 500. While anyone can stare up at a fluorescent lamp and daydream about getting out of work early, nobody would want to look directly into the lens of a Wild1, and not just because it would be attached to a pistol. A fluorescent lamp’s intensity hovers at around 130 – 140 candelas, while a Wild1 has 5,000 candelas of blinding power. 

Flashlights with high enough intensity can be used to deter any threat, including ferocious predators. For example, when hiker Jiji Oh went on what she thought was going to be a stress-relieving outdoor journey in the mountains of Steamboat Springs in Colorado, what started as a self-care journey ended up being a fight for her life. Lost in the wilderness for four days, she survived at night by scaring away predators with her flashlight. Thankfully for Jiji, she found a pair of fishermen at their “secret fishing spot” and was taken safely to civilization. 

Likewise, in Nederland, Colorado, a family dog let out of the house in the middle of the night on a bathroom break was attacked by a mountain lion. The dog’s owners were able to scare away the mountain lion by making loud noises and shining the strobe of a powerful flashlight on it. The confused mountain lion had never experienced anything like a strobe before and decided it would be better to release the dog and walk away. The dog suffered several lacerations from the attack but is otherwise fine. 

In an urban environment, your flashlight is more likely to be used against human threats rather than animal ones. Statistically speaking, the average person is more likely to find themselves knocking back a few cold ones at a bar than staring down a cougar in the wilderness. A tactical flashlight is not seen by many as a weapon, and bouncers will most likely let you pass as opposed to a guy with a pocketknife. In the same bar, you’re very likely to encounter someone drunk and belligerent. 

In a self-defense scenario, the objective is not necessarily to incapacitate your opponent, but to remove yourself from the scene as fast as you can. There is no such thing as dishonor in retreat if it means you stay alive. In the absence of pepper spray, a flashlight can be used to temporarily disorient a threat before running away. Not only would it blind your opponent, but unlike pepper spray you would not be in danger of hurting others around you – or yourself. 

Some argue that the flashlight can be used like a kubotan – a small stick, usually the size of a human palm – used by some as a self-defense keychain. The issue with this way of thinking is that many kubotan techniques require hours of training which ordinary people don’t usually have. 

According to its proponents, the kubotan is not a “gimmick” but a practical self-defense tool capable of doing everything from blocking kicks and punches to incapacitating threats by applying force to pressure points. While a trained kubotan user can execute these techniques thanks to repetition and muscle memory, an untrained man on the street would be highly likely to fumble in a life-or-death situation. In fact, the official kubotan technique manual specifically states that no one should carry a kubotan without training. 

The comparison between a tactical flashlight and a kubotan is fair since both are approximately the same size and made of durable rigid material like hard impact plastic or aircraft grade aluminum. The only real difference is the tactical flashlight helps you see in the dark. 

In its simplest form, the kubotan can be used to strike at an aggressor’s face, chest, temple, or extremities. The problem is this would require the kubotan user to get up close enough to strike his or her assailant. Once again, if your objective is to run away, getting within grappling range of your assailant is generally a bad idea. 

On the other hand, someone following you in the dead of the night will be temporarily blinded with a 12,000-candela blast from an INFORCE TFx from as far away as eight to ten feet; especially if the light is shined directly into his face. A flashlight is also a great tool for identifying who might be sneaking into your room, especially if your first reaction is to reach for your nightstand weapon. 

If your room opens and you start blasting away in complete darkness, when you turn on the lights, there will be a chance you could kill a loved one. Reaching for a flashlight first allows you to both disorient an attack and see your opponent. 

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Whether walking into a dark room, a poorly-lit alleyway, or an area with known threats in the dead of the night, if you value your life, you’ll need both your flashlight and your weapon. Enter with just your weapon, and you’ll be shooting blind. If you enter with just your flashlight, you’ll not only be unarmed but you’ll tell everyone in the room where you are.

Hence, being both armed and able to see is essential for dealing with threats in a low light environment. Over the decades, police, military, and self-defense professionals have developed several techniques for using flashlights with handguns. Some of them emphasize stability, while others emphasize light control or safety. In all these grips, it is important to ensure the flashlight does not obscure the firearm or vice-versa.

The most famous of these flashlight pistol grips is the Harries technique. Pioneered by Michael Harries, a US Marine veteran and prolific marksman, this technique was widely utilized by the LAPD SWAT before it caught on with the wider shooting community.

In the Harries technique, the flashlight is held in an icepick grip, with the shooter’s thumb on the tailcap. The hand with the weapon is set on the flashlight hand with the wrists nested together, which helps support the weapon. It’s important to note that the elbow of the flashlight hand should not be “chicken winged” out to the side and instead should be kept close to the body, without having the forearm completely vertical. If the elbow is flared too far out, you make yourself a bigger target and compromise your support of your weapon. If your elbow is in too close, you lose some of that support.

Reloading from this position is easier than it might seem. Unlike some of the other grips, the index finger and thumb can still be used to manipulate magazines, and with practice, a reload with the flashlight hand can be just as fast as an empty-handed reload. In the case of other grips, it’s much harder to get a hold of one’s magazine and rack the slide with the middle and ring fingers (see photo), but it can still be done.

There’s only one thing wrong with the Harries method. If someone lacks training and is not used to the technique, there is a very real possibility that in the heat of the moment, if a shooter sees something out of the corner of his eye, he may break his stance, sweep his flashlight to the threat putting his hand in front of his weapon and fire, shooting himself.

The Chapman technique prevents this. The technique is named after Ray Chapman, whose long career in the Marines and law enforcement gave him the foundation he needed for sports shooting. It is probably the most comfortable flashlight grip for pistol shooters who utilize the weaver stance, where one’s shooting arm is nearly fully extended and pulling on the weapon while the support hand is bent at the elbow, pushing on it to provide support.

In this technique, the flashlight is held with only the thumb and index finger, while the rest of the supporting hand pulls on the weapon for stability just like a regular two handed grip. The downside of this grip, however, is that it makes reloading awkward since the thumb can’t be used to pick up a magazine. Racking the slide would be equally tedious for the same reason. Another downside to this technique is that it limits the shooter’s range of motion in the same way the weaver stance does.

The Ayoob technique, by contrast, allows for much greater movement. This particular method was invented by Massad Ayoob, a Syrian-American former police captain and martial arts expert. The technique involves holding the flashlight in a sword grip, with a finger on the on/off switch (on the body of the flashlight) for activation. The thumbs of both hands touch, and the flashlight is held in place by the fingers of the weapon hand and the palm of the support hand. This makes it possible for this grip to be used in either the weaver stance or with arms extended.

While the Ayoob technique allows users to hold their weapons in both the isosceles and weaver stances, it is purpose designed for flashlights with buttons on their bodies rather than on the endcaps of modern tactical lights. For those, the syringe grip is more appropriate.

With the Syringe Technique, the flashlight is held between the index and middle fingers with the middle or lower part of the thumb on the endcap switch. The weapon hand is braced by the lower fingers of the flashlight hand to steady it, giving this grip the stability and of the Ayoob technique.

The Neck Index, on the other hand, is something completely different. In this one-handed technique, the flashlight is held against the user’s jaw in such a way that the light moves together with the user’s head. If the flashlight is a large Maglite type light, the body can be rested on the user’s shoulder, in the optimal position to be swung at an assailant if necessary. This is one of the most common techniques for one-handed weapon grips.

The FBI technique, meanwhile, allows for more freedom of motion while at the same time offering a small degree of protection through deceit. In this stance, the flashlight is held far away from the body. This is done so that the user’s exact position is obscured. Any bad guy that sees the light will be less likely to hit the user. At the same time, the flashlight hand and weapon hand operate independently of each other. Just like the Neck Index, this also means that the user will be shooting one-handed.

Whatever flashlight technique you prefer, there are a few universal truths that anyone doing low-light shooting should consider. One should always bring any spare batteries, especially those who work in the dark often, since most high powered flashlights only work for a few hours at a time.

On the topic of room clearing with a flashlight, Sergeant Paul Sneck of the Finnish Defense Force, who served in a close protection role during a UN deployment in Lebanon with additional experience in maritime security in the Caribbean, states that since most ceilings are white, it would be sound to point your light directly upwards if you want to illuminate the entire room, since white reflects light. Furthermore, if your flashlight is the only source of light in the room, the strobe function can be useful for moving from cover to cover. Sneck likens a gunfight with a strobe light to “fighting in a disco” since the rapidly flashing lights make it hard for your opponent to see you.

Any potential dangers in low light environments need to be met with a firearm you’re familiar with and a dependable, versatile flashlight like the InForce TFx. With 700 lumens on its high setting and a peak beam intensity of 12,000 candelas, this flashlight can be used as a self-defense measure in its own right, since 200 lumens even in broad daylight is enough to cause temporary blindness. Combined with a good weapon and used with proper technique, you should have everything you need for a self-defense scenario in the dark.