More on Survival Flashlights, in the Aftermath of Multiple Hurricanes

By John Farnam

Tactical Survival Lite Light Flashlight
Tactical Survival Lite Light Flashlight
Defense Training International, Inc
Defense Training International, Inc

Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- Comments on survival flashlights, from a friend and one of my Instructors in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and now path of Irma:

“There are good reasons to have flashlights constantly on your person, in every car, and all over your house:

1) Sometimes, flashlights are not where you remember putting them!

2) It will never go dark in a convenient place!

3) When you desperately need a flashlight, either you won’t be able to find one, or you’ll find one, but one only capable of throwing off a weak, yellow glimmer (as batteries die)!

So, I love having flashlights everywhere!

Even if for no other purposed than to look under my bed for dropped change, or to make sure I’m seeing the ‘bottom step’ when descending stairs (a truly serious threat, and one far more likely to maim/kill you than confronting violent felons).

Even inexpensive flashlights suffice for most non-tactical purposes. While not the ideal pistol-aid, they are just fine for finding your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or for not falling down stairs, as noted above.

When you must call the police at night, and are waiting for them to arrive, you will likely have a flashlight in your hand. Wave the flashlight back and forth in order to signal them, but don’t otherwise point your flashlight directly at an approaching beat-car.

Make it easy for them to quickly identify, not only whom they are looking for, who likely made the call, but also that you do not represent any kind of threat to them!

While of course, our first priority is decreasing personal risk-exposure from VCAs, it is equally important to reduce the chance that you will be will be shot by well-intentioned, but nervous, responding officers, who mis-identify the caller as a threat.

Why not make it REALLY EASY for responding LEOs to promptly conclude that there is no reason to see you as any kind of menace to them?

You will likely be cautiously approached by armed and apprehensive LEOs in any event. I am attracted to the idea of making it a simple matter for officer(s) to ID me as ‘the caller,’ and not the suspect!

Common sense is our most powerful ‘concealed weapon!’

So much of what we train and prepare for is shooting quickly and effectively, also avoiding shooting altogether, when appropriate.

All well and good, but we must remember that a simple noise-complaint may result in LEOs showing up, fully armed and armored, and not knowing what they are walking into.

To paraphrase:

‘Lord, shine thy ever-loving light on me!’”

Comment: Tactical flashlights (500 lumens or brighter) by Firstlight, Streamlight, Insight, Surefire, Olight, Eagtac,

Coast Flashlights
Coast Flashlights are easy to have on you all the time.

Tactical flashlights (500 lumens or brighter) by Firstlight, Streamlight, Insight, Surefire, Olight, Eagtac, Powertac, et al are all very acceptable, and recommended. But, less expensive flashlights, from Coast for example, are easy to have on you all the time, and will suffice for most non-tactical purposes.

As my Instructor in TX commented, you can’t have too many!

/John

About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent and unlawful lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance, if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or inactions.

It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com

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Einar R. Petersen

If you’re going to talk about “Survival” flashlights, you have to think about the DURATION of the light. The ONLY light that I have found that meets that criteria is the PELICAN “RECOIL”, Uses 3 “C” batteries and gives PLENTY of Lumens for 50+ Hours. As a Merchant Marine Chief Engineer, I KNOW the effects of loss of light in an Ship’s Engine-room and have even bought them and “donated” them to my Officers, to ensure they can function in an Emergency. I don’t want to have to swim home…

Macofjack

I have had flashlights in every room (some times two or more) for as long as I can remember. I test them weekly. Nothing worse than a dead flashlight in the dark!

Pa John

I wish somebody would make a high quality “tactical” rechargeable hand crank flashlight. I actually like the cheap-o “Ideaworks Forever Flashlight” with the charging hand crank as per here, nice and cheap: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-LED-Flashlight-Emergency-Light/dp/B00CPRRLAI It is not going to stand up to rough housing kids and such because it is all plastic and would be easy to break, but any adult with two good hands and who is not suffering from severe arthritis should be able to make do in a pinch, getting perhaps 10 to 15 minutes of usable light for every 1 minute of hand cranking – by my… Read more »

oldshooter

I’m a “flashlights, guns, and knives, freak” who believes you can never have enough of these 3 things. However, I recently discovered (and I think it may have been through an Ammoland article) “Lyfelites.” They are available online from the company website, and are basically regular LED type light bulbs, that go into your regular light sockets and work just like regular LED bulbs – UNTIL the power goes off. At that point their internal chip senses the loss of power and turns them on (their internal battery is rated to be good for 8 hours of continuous light although… Read more »

Wild Bill

Should be part of everyone’s get home bag, and everyone should make a small investment in a get home bag because natural disasters are not the only disaster than can be inflicted on Americans.

Vanns40

I’ve owned a lot of flashlights in my life, the three that I still have and have never let me down are SureFire. Expensive initially but they last forever.