Question: Optic AND Laser

[butlers]

And that’s all it is.

How many of us have been in an actual two way gun battle? 99% of the tactics, techniques, and procedures we share on these forums is based on secondhand (or thirdhand) information. Don't know why you're dismissing the perspective of a LEO in a real life scenario....

[ggammell]

How many of us have been in an actual two way gun battle? 99% of the tactics, techniques, and procedures we share on these forums is based on secondhand (or thirdhand) information. Don't know why you're dismissing the perspectives of a LEO in a real life scenario....

One instance does not make for proof of concept. I've seen several people completely unimpressed by lasers.

[Dennis]

I have personally had a serious felony fugitive suspect with 6 various long guns and pistols pointing at him and still not obeying commands immediately give up when I put a TASER red dot on him. It was dark and I was 50' away stuck on top of a fence and just trying to do whatever I could from my vantage. I assumed the suspect just didn't want to be tased but when I asked him later he said that he saw the red dot on his chest and knew we were serious and about to shoot him so he gave up. He probably could not see me or the TASER in the dark and given the distance. Just a red dot out of nowhere...

While I sure as heck wouldn't rely on that response, you can't discount the effect of movies on heavy consumers of popular culture.

Dennis.



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[butlers]

I have personally had a serious felony fugitive suspect with 6 various long guns and pistols pointing at him and still not obeying commands immediately give up when I put a TASER red dot on him. It was dark and I was 50' away stuck on top of a fence and just trying to do whatever I could from my vantage. I assumed the suspect just didn't want to be tased but when I asked him later he said that he saw the red dot on his chest and knew we were serious and about to shoot him so he gave up. He probably could not see me or the TASER in the dark and given the distance. Just a red dot out of nowhere...

While I sure as heck wouldn't rely on that response, you can't discount the effect of movies on heavy consumers of popular culture.

Dennis.

Dennis,

Thank you for your anecdote, and thank you for your service.

For what it's worth, I don't think the laser is the end-all, be-all. There are clearly limitations. However, I do think it offers some advantages:
- if you can't get perfect sight picture/sight alignment (because of bad eyes, because of an awkward shooting position, etc), you can still get a shot
- visual signaling to team members
- intimidation

I still think a weaponlight, optic, sling (and LOTS of training) are far more important in a home-defense scenario. However, I think there's some utility in a visible laser.

My original question was how to run an optic AND a laser at the same time. That's been answered. Thank you all for your responses!

V/R,
butlers

[Defaultmp3]

I run both a laser and an RMR on my handguns. With the green laser, there's zero issue of mix-up. With a red laser, there's a bit of familiarization, but it's not terribly hard to learn the difference, as the two look fairly different, as one is a projected beam of light that is physically on the target, while the other is viewed through a lens; depending on when you activate, there's also the issue that you will see the laser far sooner, and thus there's visual continuity of the dot as you come up to the target. A far bigger issue is folks tending to chase the dot, at least on handguns.