i think in a lot of ways the OP could just as well asked the question 'what is a good, basic, general purpose flashlight for house use' and gotten some similar responses.
Hi sappyg,
I included the part about "handgun use" because flashlights and guns can be held in different ways. Six of several are:
http://www.gunlight.org/2010/handgun-flashlight-techniques/ Knowing the intended use might help the poster consider factors like grip, for example. I should have spelled out earlier I need the light only to gather my family and not go looking for the bad guy. (And thanks for your comment above.)
All others,
The biggest help this thread had provide me so far: simple, lower light than I first thought, skip the strobe and blinding light. Why? Because assuming I can't get the bad guy to go away from our safe room with a call to 911 and threat of a gun, the light's primary role is to light up the subject to confirm he's a bad guy, and to provide light to line up the gun's sights; if the bad guy charges, it's aiming the gun first, not blinding light.
I believe a low mode is good to gather the family, and the low or medium good for when using the gun. I looked a bit at less expensive options to do those two roles, but, "for only a little more" the lights suggested here (and listed in #1 post of this thread) are worth it, in reliablility, pride of owership, in ability to do other stuff as long as they can be "hidden" or at least won't get in the way.
I may have gotten all the info I need... [thank you all]... but will let this run a bit more just in case.
(Got to figure out how to close a thread... help?)
