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Old 10-20-2014, 12:27 PM
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Nomercy448
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Originally Posted by Oldtimr
I have to tell you, I would be very reluctant to give a laser sighting system to a person with poor vision and who cant see in the dark. The laser will not help her see and ID the target and tell friend from foe. The laser is just a sighting system that allows you to get on target quickly. Just some concerns form a retired police firearms instructor.
All relevant points. I'll assure you that these were not overlooked in our consideration when she decided she wanted to carry, and wanted a weapon to defend herself in her home - lasers included.

In the interest of concision - something I'm not known for! - and since this isn't a thread about defensive weapon strategy or laser accessories, I suppose I wasn't compelled to delve into specifics about our decision making process for lasers on her defensive revolvers, and her defensive strategy in general.

Since you bring it up, I'll take the time to elaborate these considerations...

Lasers:

Obligatory disclaimer: while I'm not generally a proponent of laser sights, I do believe there are specific circumstances in which they can be beneficial, one of which, in my opinion, is for far-sighted shooters that have difficulties focusing on their traditional sights. I don't have interest in debating that.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: My mother-in-law is far-sighted. I went back and edited my original post to reflect that detail, and her specific issues with sight acquisition. Her visual acuity is fine past arms-length, so she has no issue - no moreso than the rest of us at least - with target identification. She does struggle, however, to pick up her sights without her reading/shooting glasses, which is naturally exacerbated by low light. While I've helped her to develop a serviceable technique of looking over her prescription shooting glasses to see her sights and her target, she doesn't sleep in her glasses. With a laser-sight, even without her glasses she can see a crisp POA on a focused target. That's in no way meant to start a debate about "head's up shooting vs. front-sight press" or point shooting vs. aimed, but only a statement of fact that a far-sighted shooter can see a target clearly, but not their sights, and as such, can benefit from a projected laser-sight.

To quickly provide contrast to that point, I'm a near-sighted shooter. Without my glasses, I can see my sights just fine, but I'm not able to focus on my target at range. A laser-sight would not help me without my glasses - it's just a blurry red dot setting somewhere on top of a blurry target.

I'll also comment that it should go without saying that a laser-sight will not make a person pull the trigger. As oldtimr said, a laser-sight only helps with sighting, nothing more, nothing less. In this case, the laser-sight offers a secondary aiming device in the event that she cannot effectively use her primary sights - which is pretty much any time she isn't wearing her glasses. Covering an unintended target with a laser dot will not kill someone. Negligent discharges come from poor discipline, poor training, or poor trigger control, not from laser-sights.

We also considered that she's probably more apt to miss and potentially injure a bystander or neighbor if she forces herself to rely on out-of-focus sights, rather than seeing the POA dot IN FOCUS on the potential intruder.

So to be clear, I say all that to whole-heartedly agree with you that visual acuity is something that every would-be self-defender must consider. Lasers can have real benefits for some folks, not for others (like myself), and DISCIPLINE/TRAINING TRUMPS ALL!!!

Defensive Strategy:

We've also considered the "friend or foe" aspect thoroughly, weighed the facts of her circumstances, and made our decisions accordingly.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: After extensive consideration of her living situation, family, friends, and history, nobody should ever be in her home at night without her knowledge, let alone in her bedroom (important distinction, as you'll read below). If one of us (friends/family) needs her, or something of hers, night or otherwise, there is no foreseeable reason why we would ever enter her home without waking her up, either by calling ahead, or by announcing ourselves loudly at the door to be let in. If she is ever surprised by anyone in her bedroom, THEY SHOULD NOT BE THERE.

We have also thoroughly discussed (and trained) a response protocol for the "someone's in the house" scenario. Her "defense strategy" is about "self defense," not "home defense." As such, her protocol is to "barricade in place, escape if necessary." She's a small 60yr old woman that lives alone in a city with good police response time. There is no circumstance in which she needs to leave the safety of her locked bedroom and risk physical assault or even a "gunfight" with an intruder to defend her belongings. If she hears someone in the house in the middle of the night, she grabs her gun, grabs her phone, calls the cops, props a chair behind the door, and takes up an advantaged defensive position to the door. If someone then tries to enter her door, she will announce that she has a gun and is on the phone with the police. If they still try to get in, she's out the window.

That protocol is not appropriate for everyone. Not all home circumstances are the same, so not all defensive strategies are the same. As a man in my 30's with a toddler in another room in the home, my strategy is to barricade my wife behind me in our bedroom and move to my son to ensure his safety. My mother-in-law has no need to leave her room unless the threat imposes upon that room.

She also practices to remember "Kevin, is that you?" if she hears anything at night and isn't sure whether she should call the police or not. We don't know anyone named "Kevin," so the answer should never be "yes." If she shouts "Kevin, is that you?" from behind her locked door and someone that happened to be sleeping over doesn't answer "no stupid, it's me, I'm just getting a drink," then she knows to call the cops. If she hears someone walking about that doesn't respond and recalls that nobody was staying over that night, she calls the cops. But again, she doesn't leave her room. If it was just a sleepwalking visitor, she wouldn't have an accidental shooting - the cops would show up and everybody would be honky dorey...

Sooooo.... That's the long story about the 'defensive needs assessment' we did with her that I didn't feel was really pertinent to a thread about rebuilding her revolver.

But I do agree that these types of considerations - visual acuity included - need to be weighed before someone just buys whatever they saw in an online forum or gun magazine, sticks it on their nightstand without properly training with the weapon and strategizing their response programs, and then inadvertently goes all 'tacticool' on their roommate coming home late from work...
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