The Flashlight in Your Coat Pocket
Dry-Fire · At Home
Verified clear, lights off. It is dark by five o'clock, so your handheld light should be in your coat pocket and not in the car. Fifteen reps: bring the light out and identify a dot. Then, only on the reps a partner standing behind you calls, draw and press with the light and gun together.
Live-Fire · At the Range
Fifteen rounds at 5 yards with a handheld light, three per string. If your range does not allow low light, shoot it with the light on in a lit bay and do the dark work dry at home.
Service Pistol
The light comes out many times for every time the gun does. Practice the light alone.
Concealed Carry
A light in your hand in a dark parking lot answers most questions without a gun.
Carbine
A weapon-mounted light is for shooting. Keep a handheld for looking.
AUX (when ready): light out and a dot identified in under one and a half seconds.
A light used early often means the gun is never needed.
Your Daily Callout — By Archetype
Get the light out before you get anything else out.
The light lets you read the situation from farther away.
A light also lets your family see where you are and where to go.
Carry the light in the same pocket every day and keep the gun-side pocket empty.
Layer: use the light with your support hand while holding a bag in your strong hand, then switch.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded — always, no matter what you think you know.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have decided to fire.
- Be sure of your target — and everything beyond it.
Dry-fire: no ammunition in the room. Verify the firearm is clear — twice. Use a safe backstop. When you finish, say it out loud: “Dry fire is over.”
The Four Universal Safety Rules
Non-negotiable. Every drill, every rep, every time. This applies to live fire and dry fire.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded — always, no matter what you think you know.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have decided to fire.
- Be sure of your target — and everything beyond it.