With the recent advancements in small hand help lights : USB rechargeable, extremely compact size and 250+ lumens there is no excuse not to have a couple flashlights on your person at all times. in the early 80s, While an Army MP, we were issued Uncle Sam’s weak and clumsy angle head flashlights… we quickly acquired C & D Cell mag lights, out of our own enlisted-man’s pay. This was good step up and these lights could take a beating. (No, I never saw or even heard of any MP’s playing “El Ka Bong” with a Mag light , but it was always in the back of my mind as a last ditch option. By the late 80s we had the well made Mini and Micro Mag-lights again great tools just not as bright as you would want in the outdoors or while searching for violent felons. Around 1992, I started seeing Surefire’s then very impressive 6P light. I quickly acquired a couple. I was citizen, again, managing a gun store and a volunteer fireman at the same time. In 1993 the night my daughter, Kelly, was born, the maternity ward was full with several births occurring in the same night. The big bright surgery light burnt out, all the others were being used…. So I whipped out my handy dandy little Surefire 6P and provided the light the doc needed to help my wife bring our daughter into this world. He was nonplussed that I could have such a compact yet super bright; wow all of 120 Lumens! I bought the doctor his own light. Lights have continued to improve and get more powerful and more compact. Currently I carry one or two Streamlight Microstream USB (250 lumens) Daniel Allen I was gifted a Fenix PD35 by a friend. It is one of my EDC lights for the last year or so. No nonsense easy to adjust the intensity of the bean and it warns you as the battery looses power.
My late friend and mentor Ed Head wrote a brief in Shooting Illustrated a a few years ago: A lady of my acquaintance is in the habit of walking her dog every morning in a nearby park. Being in Southern California, the park is situated in a deep canyon, so it remains in darkness for some time after the sun rises. Walking along, her pistol concealed in her waistband and her flashlight in hand, she heard the noise of something rapidly approaching from her rear. Turning quickly, she activated her light and caught a coyote in the act of leaping towards her dog. She later told me the coyote seemed to turn around in mid-air as it made a hasty retreat.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/why-you-should-have-an-edc-flashlight/
