Weapon Light Developed for Concealed Carry

Weapon Light Developed for Concealed Carry

weapon light

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The fastest growing market for firearms is civilian and professional concealed carry. More and more manufacturers are making compact and subcompact handguns designed for comfortable daylong carry, but the options for suitable accessories such as weapon lights for these lightweight pistols are limited.

SureFire developed a line of weapon lights specifically for the concealed carry market. The company also believes the new XC lights, which are available with and without laser sighting, will be excellent tools for off-duty and plainclothes law enforcement officers.

According to policemag.com, the XC line of SureFire weapon lights was designed specifically to fit the Glock 19 compact 9mm pistol. However, the lights fit a wide variety of compact and subcompact pistols.

XC weapon lights produce 200 lumens of white light, which is a fairly low-intensity level compared to some other weapon lights on the market. SureFire’s full-size X400 and X300 handgun lights project 600 lumens.

The XC lights are less powerful because size and weight were limiting factors on architecture. For example, the X series lights are wide enough to accommodate two CR123 batteries in a side-by-side configuration, which provides them with enough power to produce 600 lumens. In contrast, XC lights were designed to be slim so they are powered by a single AAA battery.

SureFire uses a reflector in the XC line that was designed to achieve the lights’ concealed carry mission. The Max Vision reflectors throw out a beam that is wider and brighter at close range than the duty lights, which are built to provide officers and other users with a beam that can light up objects and people at a much greater distance.

The XC lights are easy to operate from a standard pistol grip, according to public relations manager Andrew Wright. “If you are shooting your pistol with two hands and your support thumb is forward, you can use your support thumb to press down on the switch for momentary-on operation of the light,” he explains. The constant-on operation of the light is activated using another switch.