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April 6th, 2011 at 10:18 am
Hi Uncle,
I’m from Memphis and large fan of your site, visit most days.
I’d like to point out some of the down sides of lasers as a sighting system for defensive hand guns.
1. Slower target acquisition.
2. Battery powered devices that introduce another
potential for malfunction, if one trains with a laser
it’s highly unlikely that he’ll instantly revert to
using iron sights if the laser fails (a not uncommon
occurrence for a variety of reasons). Under stress,
we perform the way we train.
3. The use of a laser teaches novice shooters to look
at the target when they shoot. If the they pick up a
gun without them, will they have the ability to shoot
accurately ?
4. Finally, I find the advertising techniques used by
LaserMax and Crimson Trace to be misleading and
potentially dangerous ( I don’t think the use of the
word is inappropriate) with the insinuations that
their customers would not have survived the
encounter without their laser. I’ve had several
people make the comment “Oh I don’t need to learn to
shoot, I’m going to get a laser.” at Rangemaster in
Memphis where I work as an instructor. All but one
of them was a woman.
At the end of the day, IMHO, that $300 or so spent on a laser would have been better spent on ammo to practice
with.
Thanks for your time and keep up the good work.
Sincerely, Steve Torelli
April 6th, 2011 at 10:47 am
If a laser malfs, you still have sights. And lasers make great training tools.
They’re not perfect.
April 6th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Hi again Uncle,
True, if a laser malfunctions, you still have sights, and an experienced shooter will tend to pick up their sights quicker than most. But, though I have no stats to back this up, I have to believe that those most people inclined to buy a laser are more inexperienced shooters, and again, under stress, we will perform the way we train. If you train with a laser, how long will it take your brain to acquire the iron sights, line them up and focus on the front sight when it’s trained itself not to ? 2 or 3 seconds, maybe longer ? A few seconds could easily make the difference in a gun fight as most only last 3-5 seconds anyway.
Also, dealing as I do with dozens of novice shooters every week, you would be amazed at how many think these things are some kind of laser guidance system that directs the bullet toward the bad guy.
How much about guns and shooting the average person doesn’t know is scary.
I left it out of my previous letter, but #5 on my list would be, that even more so than night sites, a laser gives away ones location and gives the bad guy something to shoot at in a low light situation and most violent criminal encounters happen in low light situations.
Thanks for the opportunity to express my opinion on this ( you’ve probably already guessed that it’s a bit of a pet peeve with me )and continued success.
Steve Torelli