Episode 28: Tactical Gear & Procedures, Ft. Officer Heath Layman (Part 3)
The discussion continues with officer Heath Layman and he details his recent experiences working with two different Maglite flashlights. The Mag-Tac Rechargeable and Mag-Tac battery-operated both get his scrutiny and he explains why he likes them booth for different reasons.
Transcript:
Welcome to the MAGTAC Podcast, with your host, Lou Desmond. Let's join Lou and business owner/police officer Heath Layman as they discuss the latest in tactical gear and procedures.
Lou Desmond:
Bullets flying and gunshots going off will make people do strange things.
Heath Layman:
It does. Under stress, we do some very bizarre things. But we've got to try to train our guys to respond in ways that are automatic to them, that they would do things in a manner that's automatic to their training. When I first became a firearms instructor, close to 20 years ago, one of the firearms training things we did is under stress. I had an old ticket book in one hand. And they had to go up, and then they responded to a threat and they ended up shooting. And 100% of the guys that I ran through the course had that ticket book still in their hand and did all their shooting with one hand. So, I got to find ways to incorporate that into training, and find out what we're really going to do under stress. It'd be interesting to see what guys like Force Science Research Center would have to say about things like that.
Lou Desmond:
So, Officer Layman, you recently had the opportunity to review a couple of different Maglite Mag-Tactical lights. What was that experience like?
Heath Layman:
I enjoyed both of them. I found myself liking the rechargeable one more than I thought. I've been using disposable - the lithium style - batteries in a old school Streamlight that I've had for a really long time. It can get very expensive, but I just hadn't had much faith in the rechargeable batteries. So, I was probably a little predisposed to thinking that I was going to like the disposable battery version better, and I ended up actually loving the rechargeable one.
Heath Layman:
I was very surprised with how long the charge lasted. It was convenient to just pop it on the little base charger. I didn't have to take anything off of it, anyway. I just dropped it down in. I have a little gun room at my house. I call it a gunnery. My wife jokingly calls it my pleasure room. It's where I have my gun safes and my uniforms and my radio and all that stuff. But I could just come at the end of a shift and easily drop it in there, but I actually only charged it twice now because the batteries lasted a long time. The other night ... I've been on day shift with a couple of night shifts mixed in, but it's lasted. Been pretty amazing, the runtime on it.
Lou Desmond:
Suffice to say, you were surprised at the level of performance of this little light that you didn't think would perform the way it did.
Heath Layman:
Correct.
Heath Layman:
I also found myself really loving the bezel design. My personally owned - that I've purchased a long time ago - light, that I've run a long time, the bezel flares out. I'm not a light manufacturer, so I don't know the details and things, but I'm assuming it's done to get a bigger bulb or more of a mirror. I don't know. But the straight bezel in line with the narrow body I loved, because I could actually toss it in my front support-side pocket for concealed carry and carry that flashlight with that clip on, and it didn't drop down in my pocket and turn sideways. Yet, I had this powerful light right there that if I needed to draw my pistol and have a flashlight out - concealed carry, plain clothes type of situations - boom, I had a flashlight out. It was easily drawn out and in my hand in the way that I hold the flashlight already, with my thumb on the tail cap. And it wasn't uncomfortable in the pocket like a flared bezel would be, so I loved that about it as well.
Lou Desmond:
So, overall, the performance of those two Maglite Tactical lights you were very pleased with?
Heath Layman:
Oh, absolutely. You could tell it was quality. You could tell that there was some craftsmanship into it. It wasn't some cheap Chinese light that I bought off the internet that got shipped to me. No, it was quality. And I could tell that the components were quality. You press a switch on a light and that's one of the first indications of, "This is a hunk of crap" or, "Hey, this is a really quality light." When you press that thumb switch and it's a textile feeling, I don't know. You can tell quality, I guess.
Lou Desmond:
Yeah, definitely. And Tony Maglica, the owner of Maglite, the founder of Maglite, would be very glad to hear you say that because he really is a gentleman who sweats the details, and he knows how vital these tools are to the law enforcement officers who use them. Literally, the difference between life and death sometimes, if that light works or not. And Maglites have played a role in saving a number of police officers' lives over the years, very directly. One of our favorite stories is a San Bernardino sheriff whose Maglite actually caught an AK-47 round and stopped it from hitting him. That Maglite is actually in the National Law Enforcement Officers Museum in Washington, DC, on permanent display. And so, Maglites have all kinds of great purposes for law enforcement officers.
Lou Desmond:
Officer Heath Layman, you and I have talked about Maglite's history with law enforcement. And you had been on a forum with 60-something-thousand other police officers. Talk to me about what the history of Maglite and legacy of Maglite is for the law enforcement community, and how they feel about Maglite.
Producer:
Want to learn more about how officers may use tactical equipment in the field? Join us for the next episode of the MAGTAC Podcast, with Lou Desmond and officer Heath Layman.