VWTim said:
For a duty light I'd also stay away from unprotected LiIon's. If something bad is going down the last thing you want to worry about is explosive venting with flames.
Well I admit I don't know much about batteries, however I DO know that the last thing you want to worry about in a fight is your equipment, you want good gear that will work when you need it and "hopefully" not malfunction... the realities of combat are right with Murphys Laws, especially the one about "whatever can happen, will happen" when you need your light most, is usually about the time it fails, either bulb failure or battery failure, or others.... That is why 2 lights is a minimum for me, I try and carry one incan and one LED since the LED has a lower failure likely hood.... And knowing VWTim personally I'd trust his opinion when it came to batteries, as I know he knows more about them than I.
In a fight there's another rule we use, and thats is 1 is none, 2 is one, 3 is 2, etc... so 1 light is not great since it's possible to fail when you need it, especially with only a ~20min runtime or so...
Now having been on the recieving end of flashlights I can give some input....
Yes the Gladius is anoing as heck, does it make me sick or anything? NO! but it's anoying as heck... As VWTim said, that is a reciprical effect though, it's going to annoy you as well.
I've been on the recieving end of numerous flashlights in force-on-force senarios (for those not in the know, this is reality based firearms training with training knives and airsoft in place of real firearms, we've been doing this type of training on-top of our firearms/unarmed training for several years now, since before it became popular)
I don't know that anyone had a 100+ lumen light at any class I've been at, but it's highly possible... I can tell you I couldn't tell the difference (on the recieving end) between a Scorpion (Manufacturer claim of 114lumens, and appears as if it is brighter than a SF 6P @65lumens) a 6p, a gladius, e2d, etc... I could only tell because of things like strobe, or that one was an LED because of color, that's it. When you have night adapted vision, any bright light shined directly into your eyes is going to mess that up, even if only for an instant...
When it's dark out a light shined in your eyes won't nock you on your butt (sorry not gonna happen) however, it will disorient, and distract, maybe only for a split second, but a split second is an increase in reactionary gap, which is very usefull, action is faster than reaction, so slowing your attackers reaction time down, gives you more advantage, or if they were already taking action puts them into reaction mode giving you time to react.
A light isn't going to stop them from finding you as mentioned, as all they have to do is follow the light, however they are going to have a hard time seeing you, and an even harder time seeing what your doing.
As far as movie reference go watch the "Sum of All fears" theres a scene where Liev Schreiber's character "John Clark" is staring down 2 russian's with rifles, he doesn't have his handgun, but has his light, which he uses to distract them long enough to draw his pistol putting them into a stale mate. Now it's not a good representation of "real life" but it is IMHO a good representation of how a flashlight can be used as a distraction, and one that could work in reality.
Real life scenarios of lights doing something, I'm sure they are out there, we never hear about good stories like people not having to shoot someone, the media doesn't like those, they prefer where someone had to shoot a BG or what not... I'm sure I could find a few stories if I asked the right people, however I highly doubt they will be published, except in something like the American Rifleman, or a Handgun magazine.
Now I have yet to do a force-on-force scenario where the goal for me as a BG was to cover ground on the GG, however I can tell you I can fire in the general direction of the flashlight, and thats about it, depending on the flashlight technique that is usefull, as certain techniques (namely the FBI/Modified FBI) place the light away from the body and if that's what I'm aiming for odds are I will miss. Of course the students (Good Guys) usually have other issues, such as chosing to get into a firefight with me instead of just exiting the building, and failing to notice another BG being tied up dealing with me, so situational awareness and avoidance ARE your best tools for defense, flashlights help situational awareness, and do give an advantage in dark areas.... I don't know of a flashlight in existence that will knock an attacker down, or keep them from getting to you except the model or 2 which have OC built into them, so you can not only shine a light in thier eyes but shoot a stream of OC at them as well... haven't ever seen or used one, but sounds like the only way a flashlight will ever have a chance of knocing someone down.
Just my 2 cents, and in my humblest of oppionions, I don't claim to be an expert or anything else.
