Hate 'em myself but that's just a personal thing. My take is ppl use the light to scan a dark area.A BIGGIE on the rules of proper firearms handling is not to point the firearm at anything you do not want to shoot. What if that bump in the night you're looking for is a family member? You just pointed a loaded firearm at them and it's quite possble with the adrenaline, to have a bad, bad incident occur. Second, how many ppl all gung-ho on the defence stuff take proper educational classes on such stuff? Not the basic local minimum requirement stuff but top lvel classes? Few if that mny. If you're serious about it, get training also.