Light deviation

American Handgunner, July-August, 2009 by Clint Smith

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Starting in the 1980s handguns started to have rails for lights. Some were good light rails fitting lots of different lights. Some rails were/are silly because they only fit their light, and that led to their holster--although most of that silliness is over nowadays.

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Many of the first holsters were just nylon pouches that were pretty much junk and not at all like today's high quality carry platforms made by the likes of BLACKHAWK! or Safariland and others. In the beginning, amost all of these rigs were geared for the SWAT or military environment and that trend pretty much holds true today. Bluntly, the private sector has some issues with simply carrying guns, so the idea of a light-mounted system on a concealed handgun being drawn from a concealed holster is a bit much for most regular humans.

Although it's discussed on the information highway by "forum experts" that the private sector will most often use a firearm on the "street"--in reality most of us may actually need our guns at home. Since there is a strong probability the gun will be more for the home and not the street, a wise consideration may be for a handgun built with a light mount. The bottom line is the handgun for home defense, equipped with a light rail, may in fact do nothing harmful. In reality, a light mounted on the rail may be very helpful in the protection of home and hearth.