Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I have a question

I've been reading a lot about the Aurora shooting and people talking about fighting back. I have pointed out a few times that it was a dark theater and that he had deployed smoke. Usually people then suggest a light, normally something along the lines of "I have a rail mounted light on my pistol".

Now my question is how effective would the average gun mounted light be in that environment?

Maybe some of you in law enforcement or fire fighting could shed some light on this because it seems to me the light wouldn't be that effective with the smoke in the air and still wouldn't allow for sufficient lighting to be sure of an effective hit.

IMVHO, a light used in a room with smoke will only serve to make the holder a likely next target..

Think how visible your white headlights are in fog... Not so much..

That was my theory too, headlights in fog and looking at how dull lights can seem in a room full of smokers made me think a light on a gun wouldn't help you but might very well help the bad guy pick out who's sending 9mm or .45 zippers whizzing past him.

I have found a light of minimum value. A silhouette and tritium will allow you to put lots of rounds on target.

Now, IDENTIFYING a threat, is where lights truly shine.

Pun bitches!


Travis

A movie screen puts out a lot of light, even during night scenes. A man walking up or down an aisle, shooting rounds, is going to stand out like a beacon.

BTW, shooting at a bad guy when there are innocent theater-goers directly behind him, carries some risk that ought to be considered pretty carefully in these scenarios.

Yeah, I know. Everybody on the 'Fire is a world-class marksman under combat conditions.

This may sound cold-blooded but...There were twelve people killed and a bunch wounded. If a guy had pulled his pistola and hit a couple of innocents before he killed the bad guy, after the bad guy had killed say, two or three people and wounded twice that many, where would the body count be? IOW, desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm all for being sure of your target, it's background and your aim, but you'd have saved over half the dead folks and a ton of wounded in that case.

As to lights mounted on weapons, they are great if the target ain't shooting back. My main carry piece is a Smith M&P and it has a rail and the rail has a light. The trouble is finding a holster and/or method of carry for it. It also increases the size of the weapon exponentially.

This scenario was no different than any other. The target was lit. Cover, concealment and destroy by fire and maneuver.

It's a universal concept.


Travis

Ethan:

Yeah, it's pretty cold blooded. You may save yourself and a family member, but if you kill somebody's child in the process, I expect you're going to feel pretty crappy about it for the rest of your life. Your wife is going to feel pretty crappy about it. And you're kids are going to have trouble dealing with it, too.

Which isn't to say you shouldn't take a shot, depending on the circumstances, but there's nothing wrong with feeling a sense of responsibility toward other, law-abiding members of your community who may be directly behind the shooter. Whom I presume you care something about.

Difficult problems make for hard choices. You can evacuate your family and feel good that none got shot or you can let mama do it and take your shots and feel [bleep] the rest of your life that you only saved seventy-five percent of those who would have been casualties. Of course you have no way of knowing that. My moral compass is trying to do the right thing and most of us know what that is here, since hindsight is 20/20. I expect a lot of those people would have been armed had they known the future. Of course, most of them would have been someplace else, armed or not.

Sure it was different than some. None of us know how difficult the "course of fire" was and none of us will know. The point a lot of people were making was that it was more complicated than having toted your Super Blackhawk down to the picture-show and shooting the guy as soon as he jumped out in his play-acting garb, then taking some cool pics with one foot propped on his corpse while all the cops stand around wanting to be you.

Ever see the muzzle flash from an AR15 at night fire? Or a Remington 870 at night?

It would have been NO trouble identifying the shooter, so I can't see the light being of much help across a smoky room. The trouble would be getting a clear shot and in getting a clear sight picture in decreased lighting conditions.

the way i read it ... the guy had on a gas mask... which only gives him limited visibility....even without the smoke....which makes me think someone could have gotten behind him and taken him down ....but as i said just my opinion....

I guarantee you it wouldn't have been an easy shot. Plus he was all decked out like a SWAT team member. He could have been Keifer taking out some terrorists who were set to detonate some bombs for all you know. This was probably not an easy scenario. Just sayin'...

All gunfights are complicated.

Cover, concealment, destroy by fire and maneuver.


Travis

That was my thinking also. From witness accounts he was often very close to the patrons. One young woman said he nearly hit her in the face with the muzzle of a long gun as he swung it about.

Taking advantage of his limited visibility, close proximity and the chaos to get behind and angle a slug up into his highly disturbed brain pan would have been the surest bet for halting this sicko.

Of course it's all conjecture at this point. I've never been in a situation like that and for all I know I'd be curled up on the floor sucking my thumb and wetting myself. I doubt it though..

evidently his 'combat gear' was AirSoft quality. Virtually anything would have put him down.

Personally, unless I was right next to him, I'd not be looking to shoot him, but instead be looking to get the hell out of there.

I don't see a weapon light as an asset in this case, just to answer the question.

A slight change in facts one way or the other could make a difference on the issue of a light. Same for weapon mounted versus detached. I always carry a flashlight but that doesn't mean I have to use it.