Yes, I believe it would be, but that advantage is only good for a few seconds at best.
The party begins when the light comes on.
Bright light = blinding:mecry:
Big, heavy light = painful
Gun = dead
But, whatever the confrontation, the light is going to be best applied to the eyes.
Interesting anecdote: when the hurricanes came through last year, a huge by large tree destroyed half my neighbor's house. The way the damage went, there was no open areas except one, which was unfortunately right by the driveway and could be seen from the street. Neighbor and his wife were out of country on a vacation. Well, about 3am I hear these subtle voices coming through the tree in my backyard (which had been my neighbor's tree right up until the time it came crashing down into my backyard after crushing his house, leaving my back yard looking like Sherwood Forest). It was easy to hear them because there was *nothing* going on in the way of noise. No planes were flying, no cars driving, no a/c compressors running, no stereo's playing, etc. Quiet as a pin drop outside.
Hmmmm, voices, sounding stealthy. Not good. I gerded up with a Glock and S&W and a several million candlepower spotlight. Snuck out the front door and walked over to the neighbor's house real quiet like. There were two guys there checking out the hole in the wall, and one of them was half-way in, with his whole upper body through the hole. I just stood there without saying anything, trying to get a feel for what they were up to. Maybe family checking out the house, maybe fire department or cops, maybe punks. Dark as all hell out there, and the only real light was from their flashlights. The back scatter from the local shopping centers, the streetlights, everything else was out.
One of them shortly noted my presence and mumbled something to his friend, who backed out of the hole in the wall. He mentioned something about 'fire department', which I think was BS, and we started a very short and polite, but curt, parley.
Then they both put their lights into my eyes at the same time.
I dunno, maybe they really were fire department, but who on earth knows a fireman who doesn't have a whole slew of identifying items even at his house? The guys were wearing tanks and flipflops, and in no way looked anything like firemen, even in their mannerisms.
The one who had backed out of the wall, who looked to be the fiester of the two, took a few steps in my direction while trying to while saying something and I immediately got a herkey feeling. It just didn't feel right. I fired up the spotlight and aimed it right at their faces. The protested, but I told them they were making me very uncomfortable and asked them to leave. Told them nobody was home at that house but that I was going to protect is as my own until the owner came back. Told them that there was no way on earth that I would allow anybody to start looting within earshot of my house.
They just said okay and walked away, disappearing through the trees that were stewn in the road a few houses up from my own. In retrospect, I'm almost sure the were punks.
The short point of that story is interesting in that the two guys beamed me right in the face when they seemed ready to try to make a move (the fiesty one had a set look on his face for sure), and then I beamed them right back. In this situation, both parties utilized lights to try to gain the advantage, myself reflexively, and I believe that any such confrontational situation will always begin with both parties (if they have flashlights) trying to blind the other.
Bright light good.:duck: