Criminal Attacks Often Happen at Night

Criminals often choose night time to attack. So if you are ever unlucky enough to be forced to defend yourself, your family, or your home, there is a reasonable probability it might happen at night.

You Need Adequate Light to Positively Identify Any Target, as Definitely Hostile, Before Engaging

Regardless of what weapon, if any, you may use to defend yourself, it is crucial that you positively establish that you are in fact faced with a valid self defence defence situation, which is defined as:

Any situation, where if you do nothing, you, or your family are likely to be killed, seriously injured, or raped.

In addition, even if you are sure you are about to be killed or seriously injured. How can you be sure that the person you are about to engage is not perhaps your neighbour coming to help, or someone entirely innocent?

Or are you sure that if you have to shoot in the direction of a perceived attacker, that there are no innocent people further beyond that, who could be injured by your bullets?

This requirement is even built into being one of the Four Universal Rules of Gun Safety, which is:

Be sure of your target, and what is behind it.

That rule, if followed faithfully, will prevent the terrible tragedies which happen at times, such as when someone mistakenly shoots a family member, who was perhaps unexpectedly sneaking back into the house at night, hoping not to wake the others.

So it is EXTREMELY important, before taking any irreversible actions against perceived aggressors, that you positively identify them as valid targets. PARTICULARLY in a full blown self defence situation, when you will in all likelihood be very highly stressed, and things may be happening very fast – which are obviously circumstances in which tragic mistakes are easy to make.

You cannot positively identify a target properly in the dark, nor see whether there are other innocent people in that direction!

You cannot just start shooting at vague shapes in the night, or towards ominous sounds on that basis alone!

The only practical way to positively identify your targets at night, is to use some sort of method of being able to clearly see what you are shooting at.

Shooting is heavily based on vision!

For ordinary people, who do not have access to more sophisticated military spec. night vision, or other such systems, this requirement just comes down to using some sort of torch.

Torches are usually either purpose mounted on your weapon, or held separately in your non-dominant hand, as you shoot.

The Usefulness of a Handheld Torch in Self Defence Situations

As we have suggested previously, small sturdy torches are very useful in self defense situations, for a variety of different reasons:

A small torch is easy to carry, and thus it is practical to include that into the things you carry with you everyday.
Being able to see at night is obviously useful in general, but PARTICULARLY during potential self defence situations.
Having a torch with you will enable you to see who might be lurking in dark corners, or down dark alley ways, or in dark parking lots, while they are still far enough away from you as to not pose an immediate threat. This could allow you to simply avoid a dodgy situation long before you might be forced to use violence to protect yourself, by just not going there, for example.
If the torch is bright enough, it can temporarily blind your attacker, which may allow you to gain the initiative, or get away.
If the torch is sturdy enough to be used as a striking weapon, then if the situation comes to blows, having a torch in your hands is better than nothing.
A torch, by itself is not normally perceived as an aggressive anti-social weapon, so carrying it with you is not subject to restrictions that might be applicable to other self defence weapons.
And lastly, obviously a torch helps you light up your target when you are shooting at night, or in low light conditions.

The Usefulness of Weapon Mounted Lights

It can make a lot of sense to mount a purpose built weapon light onto your handgun or long gun.

You then know that you always have the ability illuminate your target in low light conditions, and don’t have to worry about carrying a separate torch.

And depending on your preferred method of weapons handling, it can make shooting at night much easier, because you don’t have to revert to single handed methods of shooting, while holding the torch with the other hand. Which can take some getting used to and thus require some additional specialised training. Particularly, for example, changing magazines, or dealing with malfunctions, while holding a torch in your one hand.

While it is possible to revert to one handed shooting with a hand gun (which then allows one to hold a torch in your non-dominant hand), it’s almost impossible to do that effectively with a rifle, or a shotgun. So in the case of long guns, it’s probably a no-brainer to add a dedicated weapon light to them, if they are going to be used for self defense, or home defense.

The Limitation of Weapon Mounted Lights

The biggest single issue with a weapon mounted light, is that if you want to see at night, you have to point your weapon at what ever you want to illuminate.

For anyone who has a well developed sense of firearm safety, this raises obvious very concerning issues! One of the Four Rules of Firearm Safety specifically warns against that very thing:

Always point your weapon in a safe direction (which means ensure that the weapon is never pointed in a direction, where if it fired, innocent people would be hurt).

Pointing your weapon light at someone, when it is attached to your weapon, could also cause quite significant legal issues in South Africa.

South African law does not distinguish between shooting at someone, vs pointing a firearm at them. Both are defined in our law as “use of a firearm”, and thus the law treats both actions as essentially the same thing.

So the problem with a weapon mounted light, is how do you know you can actually even use it, when you need it to see at night, without causing a potential safety issue, or potentially getting yourself into significant legal problems?

Besides, it’s not practical, nor desirable, nor tactically sound, to have to draw your weapon whenever you just want to see in the dark.

This is the primary reason why you might elect to use a separate hand held torch, instead of, or maybe just in addition to, a weapon mounted light in many cases.

Another problem with weapon mounted lights is seeing your sights in the dark, if you are not using electronic aiming optics, such as a red dot.

Ideally you want the light to illuminate both the target, as well as your sights, so that you can aim normally. But that depends heavily on the position of available mounting points on the weapon, the size and shape of the light, and whether your hands and fingers can easily reach it, to turn it on or off in that mounted position. It’s sometimes not possible, or at least not practical, to mount the light in a position where it can illuminate your sights, as well as the target. This may mean you need to learn how to aim when you can only see the vague dark silhouette of your sights against the illuminated target, which can be less than optimal.

Another problem, which is slightly worse when using a weapon mounted light, which will be discussed in more detail below, is that your adversaries are likely to aim for your light, when they are shooting at you, when they cannot see anything else in the dark to aim for. A hand held torch allows slightly more flexibility in those circumstances. You can hold the torch farther away from your body, or put it down, well away from you, or even just drop it, if necessary, when you are being shot at. Obviously a weapon mounted light is fixed in place on the weapon, and you need to be quite close to that light, relatively speaking, as you fire the weapon.

Without a Weapon Mounted Light, You will be Essentially Shooting Using Only One Hand

When using a hand held torch, because you need to hold the torch in one hand, that means the other hand has to hold the gun. Which is why this method is usually only used with handguns, where it is practically possible to shoot single handedly.

So it is thus important to practice shooting with only one hand frequently (alternating between both your dominant and non-dominant hands), and are confident that you can hit what you aim at, at self defence type ranges (which are relatively close), from various positions and particularly from cover and concealment.

Shooting using only one hand does lend itself to firing from cover, because you can get your gun out to the side, with the rest of your body behind the barrier, and you can use which ever hand is best orientated to do that, depending on the situation. However, the difficulty is you need the torch out there as well, which needs to be held with the other hand.

There are different techniques which you can use to achieve this, which are briefly described below.

How to Select and Use a Handheld Torch For Night Shooting

There are a number of features, which are relatively important when selecting a hand held torch for night shooting:

The torch needs to be quite small and easily handled in one hand. A torch that is about as long as your hand is wide, and which is quite slim (not too fat), is ideal. That allows you to grip the torch with three fingers, while leaving you forefinger and thumb to work your handgun slide, and change magazines etc.
The main on-off switch should preferably be a button on the back of the torch.
This switch should switch the torch on, preferably directly into your preferred mode, without you having to cycle through all the modes, and then when clicked again, it should just switch the light off, without forcing you to cycle through a whole lot of different modes, before the light goes out. You need this, because one wants to only have your light on when you are quickly scanning each area, or about to actually shoot. You generally want your light off at most other times to avoid advertising yourself as an easy target, and giving away your movement, intentions and position. And certainly you want to be able to switch it off very quickly. The simpler and easier it is to use in this respect, the better.
Like all other self defence equipment, reliability is a critical concern. When you need it, the torch must work as expected, for the few seconds, or minutes, or even hours that any self defence situation might last.
The torch should be easy to carry, preferably having it’s own pouch which can be mounted on your belt, or plate carrier, or what ever other method you intend to use to carry it.
It should be small enough that it can be easily stored together with your firearm in the gun safe. In the event of a home defence situation, when you might be rushing to get your weapon, you should not have to frantically search around for a torch as well.
It should be sturdy, rugged and watertight, so that it will operate under difficult conditions.
While a bright torch helps clearly see at night, if the torch is too bright, then when used close to walls, or inside a small room, it might blind you via light reflected of the target, or walls and other surfaces behind them. Even if it doesn’t completely blind you, being dazzled by very bright light may make it difficult to see anything at all in the dark for a few seconds, after you switch if off. Which can then become a significant problem in itself. You don’t really need a massively bright light. While your own requirements, or preferences may differ, we would recommend about 500-900 lumens being adequate for these purposes, given that self defence and home defence altercations typically occur within ranges of 0-20m.
There are opposing arguments about the usefulness of a flashing “strobe” mode. Some people say it helps disorientate your adversaries, to some extent making it more difficult for them to respond quickly, and perhaps unable to precisely identify your position as you move around. Others suggest it is of little value and thus not something to be taken seriously. Our opinion is that it seems that the effect, is probably of limited value, at best, but not necessarily of zero value. We do advise that if you intend to use it, you need to get used to that strobing effect yourself – so make sure you train in the dark with that. In any event, the option of a strobe mode will end up being a personal choice. The important requirement remains, that when in that strobe mode, you need to be able to switch the torch off with one click, and not have to cycle through a whole lot of modes, before the light goes off.
As suggested above and elsewhere, if things devolve into very close range combat, an appropriately sturdy torch can make an ideal striking weapon, provided it is strong enough to not break on repeated heavy impact. Which is another thing to keep in mind, when selecting a torch for these purposes.
A red light might help preserve your night vision.

Sights and Optics

Aiming a firearm relies on one using the fact that light travels in straight lines. So when aiming, you use the weapon’s sights to align the weapon with the straight line defined by the ray of light emanating from the target, received by your dominant eye.

Doing that in the dark, has the obvious problem of the absence of light, which is specifically needed for aiming. You need to see BOTH your sights, and the target, simultaneously, to aim properly.

Which is why shooting is so reliant on vision. Shooting is as much about seeing as it is about anything else.

If you are using an electronic optical sight, which is battery powered, then seeing that in the dark, should not really be a problem, because the optical sight is illuminated under it’s own power. But one needs to ensure your batteries are charged. And you may need to know how to adjust the settings for operations in the dark, or low light (if your sights do not adjust themselves automatically, which many do not). Which again – if you have never done that before – trying to work out how to adjust your electronic sights, in the dark, with hostile armed assailants in the next room of your house -is not really the time to learn how to do that! So one needs to know how to use your equipment fully, and practice doing that till it all becomes routine.

If you are using normal iron sites, some of those include inserts that glow in the dark, which usually work quite well.

But if you do not have those glowing inserts, you may have to hold the torch in a position that illuminates the sights, as well as the target.

The last resort if you cannot illuminate your sights, is to superimpose the dark silhouette of your sights upon the illuminated target, which is doable, but less than optimum.

Again, with lots of practice, you will work out what is doable and what works best for you.

Light and Movement

In the dark, with nothing else to aim at, assailants are likely to shoot at your light source, because that will be all they can see of you, and thus an obvious target for them.

For that reason one should perhaps adopt a “light and movement” approach, depending on the circumstances.

You only want your light on for short periods, to quickly scan areas, looking for potential intruders or attackers, and if necessary, to positively identify them as valid targets who pose an imminent deadly threat to you or your family, as well as ensure that there are no innocent souls in the line of fire.

Allowing your light to be only be on for short duration scans, but which are still long enough for you to take in the necessary details, gives anyone who might want to shoot at you limited time to react.

But obviously, the moment you switch your torch on, they know where you are, and what you are doing.

Which is why when you switch your light off again, it is advisable to move somewhere else immediately, to retain the initiative and not become cornered, or otherwise allow your assailants to move against you, based on them knowing where you are.

Ideally you would want to move from one position of cover (which will protect you from bullets), to another. And then do another quick scan with your torch, while exposing the least amount of your body to potential enemy fire each time.

Obviously the actual circumstances will dictate to what extent you are in fact able to do that, to any degree at all. But that should be the objective of your training at least.

This means moving around mostly in darkness, which can have it’s own challenges. But in your own home, you should have the advantage, because you should know the layout and where all the obstacles are, better than your assailants.

Keep Your Finger Off the Trigger

Make sure you keep your finger off the trigger at ALL times, as you move around, while scanning for intruders, and while you do everything else you might need to do, in those circumstances. The ONLY time you may place your finger on the trigger, is when all of the following conditions are all met simultaneously:

You have clearly seen and taken the time to definitely and positively identify an attacker who is posing a definite immanent threat to your life and/or your families lives. Make VERY sure, because a mistake cannot be rectified later, and will affect you for the rest of your life.
They are not responding to your verbal commands to stop posing a threat, if you have time to try get them to submit, or go away, via shouting at them.
As far as you can tell at the time, your only reasonable option to prevent rape, death or serious injury, is to shoot.
Your sights are aligned with the target, and the gun is not pointing somewhere else.
You have checked that no innocent people will be hurt by the path of your bullets into the distance.
You have made the definite conscious decision to shoot.

This safety rule is stressed yet again, for a number of hopefully obvious reasons.

The main reason is that as you move around your home, or property, actively searching for what you suspect are intruders with dangerous criminal intent, lurking somewhere in the darkness. Which would clearly be a very high stress, and probably very frightening situation. Well if you do see someone looming in the darkness, you are probably going react with fright, or at least with a jolt of adrenaline. If your finger is on the trigger, there is a MASSIVE probability you will instinctively fire the gun at them! Because you are actively seeking out targets, and you just found a target! Plus you are probably wound up, perhaps wanting to react before they shoot you! But the person you saw could be a family member, also wondering around in the dark responding to the same thing you are, or your neighbour, or a security guard, or someone who has just gotten lost, or a million other possibilities!

The Four Universal Gun Safety rules still apply – especially in those circumstances! You need to hammer the enactment of those four safety rules into your muscle memory by ALWAYS incorporating them into your training.

It is particularly important to keep this requirement top of mind in any situation where you are searching for a potential criminal intruder in your home or property, who you have not yet found, with all the tension that entails.

Do not get blasé about this! Place your focus is on making sure you do not shoot the wrong person, instead of just looking for an intruder – that subtle difference is crucial at times like these.

Muzzle Flash and Smoke

Shooting at night will produce some muzzle flash and smoke, which you do not normally see to the same extent during the day, which can make it a bit more difficult to see what is happen in front of you.

Depending on your ammunition type, and type of gun, these effects can get significant, especially in enclosed spaces, or where you are shooting close to walls, or the floor.

Smoke can form an opaque cloud in the torch light, which can completely obscure the scene in front of you for quite some time.

If that happens you may need to move, to be able to see what is happening.

Again, the only way to learn how to deal with these factors is to practice shooting at night in realistic scenarios. Try find a shooting range and instructors who will allow you to do that.

Shooting and Seeing Around Corners

When defending your home against armed attack, at night, one should be trying as far as possible, to keep your body behind walls and other barriers, as you scan your surroundings, search for intruders, and if necessary shoot at valid targets. This is the core principle around which most of the tactics used in house clearing, are based on, for example.

The primary tactic here is to get your gun and torch well out to the side of you, and tilt your head and upper body over, so that from the assailant’s perspective, ideally only your gun, torch and the corner of your eye are exposed from around the corner, or edge of the door jam.

Keep your outside elbow tucked in tightly against you body so it does not stick out in the open. Make sure your legs and rest of your body are not exposed.

Your torch should be on the outside of your gun, to provide proper lighting of the scene through the door, or around the corner. And as mentioned earlier, if you are using iron sights, then you also preferably want your torch to illuminate your front sight at least.

There are various ways to do all of this, which will come down to settling on what works for you, but the only way you can work that out is practice, which should include actually shooting in the dark.

Gun and Torch Handling in the Dark

It goes without saying that you need to be completely familiar with handling your gun and torch, to the extent you can do it all easily in the dark!

That is in fact the requirement, for night shooting.

So you need to be completely able to safely draw your pistol, holster your pistol, chamber a round, change magazines, clear malfunctions, work the safety (if relevant), and the slide release, and all the other routine weapons handling activities, all by feel, in the dark, without fumbling, or unnecessary delays, or other mistakes.

The same goes for using your torch. You need to get it ready to use, from wherever you carry or store it, all in the dark, without fumbling, or dropping it, all with one hand.

There are essentially four ways of holding a torch when shooting:

The Harris grip, is probably familiar to you because you see it used often in movies. You hold your handgun in your one hand, aimed at the target. The torch is held in the other hand, with that wrist crossed underneath your wrist gripping the gun. To get the torch up next to, or even slightly above your gun (so that you can illuminate your sights), you can cock the torch wrist up, to touch the back of your two hands against each other. By using isometric tension, to push your two hands/wrists against each other – you can form a reasonably stable platform to control the gun.
If you need your torch on the opposite side of the gun, you can do essentially the same thing, but this time the torch hand does not cross underneath your gun hand, but is just held along side, by pushing your two palms together in various ways. Be careful to not let your torch and fingers get in the way of the slide, which will smack them hard as it cycles during shooting. This is sometimes called the Chapman method (but that is a specific variant), or just simply the “side-by-side” grip, because the torch is held side by side with the gun. Again using isometric tension by pushing your two hands together provides a reasonably stable shooting platform.
Another way to hold the torch is simply hold your torch in a hammer fist grip up next to your torch hand shoulder, with your gun arm extended out in front of you as normal. The main benefit of this approach is you will definitely illuminate your sights. The downside is your gun hand is unsupported by your torch hand.
The last grip, which is a variant of the shoulder grip, which is to extend your torch arm out, to get it as far away from your body as you can, while still pointing the torch beam at the target. The idea here is to get the torch away from your body when your assailants are shooting at it. Perhaps this should be called the “Statue of Liberty” grip? Because that is what one feels like.

Which of these grips to use, or the subtle variants thereof, which you may develop, will depend entirely on what works for you, as well as the position, and circumstances you find yourself in. As usual, you should practice them all to find out which provides you with the best results, in various different circumstances.

It may be useful to attach a small lanyard to your torch, and then to loop that around your fingers, or wrist, so that it retains the torch in, or near your hands, if you have to let go. For example, if you have to do something else with that torch hand, such as changing magazines, or anything else. This again, will come down to personal preference and working out what works best for you.

Obviously, losing stuff in the dark, as you move around, is something that you should take steps to avoid. So it’s probably worth thinking about how to securely stow, or carry each item with you.

Responding to Things that go Bump in the Night

Given that the entire subject of this article is all about using a firearm to respond to self defence, or home defence situations, which happen in the dark, one needs to think about what those scenarios actually looks like in practice, in order to be prepared, and thus train for them.

For example, you may need to jump out of bed, with limited opportunity to start looking for various different things, in your recently woken groggy state, and perhaps all in the dark.

Ideally you want everything you need, all ready and staged, ready to grab and go! Such as an easy to grab bag, or set of kit, which will enable all that equipment to be easily carried on your body, in a way that you know where everything is, by feel, and everything is easy to access, but is securely stowed on your body as you move around in the dark.

Obviously your requirements will depend on your particular circumstances, such as what threat level you face, and to what degree you are expecting to have to respond, and for how long that might last, against what sort of opponents – all of which will obviously be very different, from person to person, and family to family.

You may want to take some time to think through various rigs which are set up to meet your requirements in that regard. A few examples might be:

The most simple would just be a torch and loaded hand gun, kept together in the safe – which you just grab, in either hand, when faced with a home defence situation.
A simple small shoulder bag, or satchel, which contains a torch, extra magazines, some earplugs or electronic ear protection and anything else you might want, which is kept in the gun safe, together with your loaded weapon.
Or perhaps a belt rig which includes a torch, some extra magazines and your holstered weapon all mounted onto the belt, which you can just put on, and go.
A step up from there, would be a full body armour plate carrier, with all the kit mounted to that, which you grab and put on, when needed.
Or whatever you feel makes sense in your circumstances

In the dark, you have to know where everything is and be able to work by feel, which is why getting this all organised in some sort of grab-and-go rig is probably a lot better than trying assemble it all in an emergency, and then trying to carry everything in your dressing gown pockets, as you move around the house in the dark!

And then, obviously you should train with that rig, whatever it is, to get used to using all your equipment, in the dark, as well as moving around and getting into all sorts of positions as you do so.

Now obviously, you don’t necessarily need to stumble around in the dark, in your own home when faced with some home defence situation, if you don’t have to. But the point of this article is to point out that you should consider being capable of doing all of that in the dark, if necessary. Something as simple as load-shedding might make that necessary!

Besides, if you wake up with the bad guys already inside your house, it might be a good idea to not immediately alert them to your waking, if they have not yet reached your room. Because once you turn the lights on, you effectively tell your assailants that you are up and responding to them, and the initiative then passes to them, while you are stumbling around trying to work out what is happening, and trying to get to all your kit. Of course you may be lucky, and they simply run away, if they are non confrontational. Which they would do, in any case, as soon as you confront them. The problem comes when faced with criminals who have no intention of running away, who don’t care if you wake up, who intend to do you harm regardless. Against that sort of foe, and depending on the situation, it might be better to try keep the initiative, by getting ready quietly in the dark, to make sure you are armed and ready to do what you need to do, on your terms, before they can react – instead of being in the position of trying desperately to catch up with circumstances, as they do what ever they want to do to you and your family. Remember, most conflict is won or lost, based on who holds the initiative.

But be aware, according to almost everyone who has experience in this field, trying to clear your house or property, on your own, at night, against determined armed assailants, has a very high probability of ending badly! So that is something to attempt only when you absolutely have to, and have no other options.

Ideally you should apply our Principles of Home Security to your home, which should prevent you waking up with the bad guys already in the house – instead you would have ideally been woken by the alarm going off the moment they entered your property, and while they still have a few barriers to penetrate, before they can reach you and your family.

But in any event, a far better idea than trying to clear your house or property, on your own at night, is to gather your family and barricade them all into one, preselected defendable room, or other defendable position in the house, and then defend that barricade, at all costs, while calling for help (if some sort of effective response team can be expected to arrive in time).

We strongly suggest you apply our Principles of Home Security to your home, which, if you follow those principles, will give you adequate warning of any intrusion, and maximise the probability that you can keep the bad guys out, for the time that it takes for an effective response to arrive.

Shooting at Night