Tactical Flashlights: A Discussion
This week’s podcast discusses what to look for in a tactical flashlight and some real-world tips to help avoid conflict.
Kris Paronto “Tanto” is a former Army Ranger and private security contractor. His experience within the military and government contracting work spans 18 years. Kris is also an accomplished public speaker, author of The Ranger Way and The Patriot’s Creed, owner of Battleline Tactical, and host and partner of E3 Firearms Association.
Transcript:
Maglite:
Welcome to the Maglite podcast. I got my patch right there so everybody can see it. Kris Tanto, Paronto Ranger veteran, big Oley combatant, movie consultant, author, trainer, motivational speaker, founding member of E3 Firearms Association, uh, E3 Firearms Association. You and I had talked about this. You know, you, you're the main trainer, one of the founders, and one of the main things that you do there is train people how to, number one, avoid conflict. Sure. If they can avoid it. And then the escalating scale of how to use force. You if you have to. And obviously you and I have talked about this in previous conversations that, look, if you're gonna be someone who's gonna carry a firearm, learn how to use it. Yeah. I mean, be, be trained, Right?
Kris:
Well, and, and be trained because it's, it's, it can be dangerous in the wrong person's hands, obviously, if you've seen it in bad guy's hands. And it all can be dangerous in an untrained person's hand, but if you are trained with it, it's a tremendous asset, tremendous tool for you to protect yourself and your family. What I also see too is not just the farm in itself, just learning the firearm, learning the community being around. It gives people confidence. You just see confidence levels escalate. And believe me, if you are confident out there on the street, I'm not saying arrogant, I'm not saying, you know, your ego's out there, but if you walk with confidence, if you portray yourself as that, you can take care of yourself. And we talk about this on the E3 arm. We actually have an online training course. We talk exactly about this. You becoming harder target, your situational awareness goes up. So now you are avoiding a fight or avoiding conflict without even knowing that you're avoiding it.
Maglite:
You know,
Kris:
I to win,
Maglite:
I, I was, I was taught that by a, a trainer a long time ago. And that I actually had a situation in, uh, Paris where I had gone out late at night, um, because my family had gotten back late from, uh, we went to the beaches of Normandy and we got back late to the hotel and the kids were hungry. There was a place down the street that was a 24 hour supermarket. It was about four blocks from the hotel. So at about midnight, I'm making the walk down to there, and all of a sudden I feel more than I see a couple of guys cross the street behind me who had come out of an alley and they're gaining on me. Uh, and I straightened up my shoulders. And what I did is I dropped this little thing behind my back. This is a combat pen, right.
Kris:
Tactical pen that I'm able to, to carry with me everywhere. And I just dropped it behind me and, and, and showed it to him behind my back. You know, I made it visible. They dropped off. What I mean, that's all it took. Just, Hey, I'm, I'm not gonna go down easy. I'm showing you, I'm, if if you come at me, this is not gonna be easy. I know you're there and I'm armed. Uh, and so, you know, that was enough to dissuade them. Uh, and that's, you know, the sort of thing that you learn at E3. Let me, let me ask you about this little thing right here. This is the Mag-Tac 2. This is a flashlight that is designed for handheld operation. Tactically, you've had a chance to interact with it. What do you
Kris:
Think? Yeah, actually it's, and it's right. My dresser drawers right there with it. So if I need to grab it, I know exactly where it's at night. Um, what I like about it and putting it, it's, it's with the little ridges on the inside of it, it holds perfectly in my hands. Ergonomically just fits in my hands and it's easy to use and grab and it feels comfortable. And the pressure pad is very sensitive, which is good. You want it to be sensitive, but it's also very easy to use as far as you wanna set it on a constant beam, or you wanna set it on the stroke. It's easy with the some, Sometimes you get the older ones. And, and, uh, Surefire had issue with surefire, not, not your competition here, but where the pressure pad wasn't that sensitive. So you really had to hammer that thing to get it to work where <laugh> exactly. A good, good, uh, especially something that has, you can utilize your gross motor skills to operate. That's the best case scenario, especially in a duress. And it's perfect, dude. And actually it just fits right in my hand. I love those little grooves on the inside of it. It's awesome.
Maglite:
Awesome. So you're talking about those grooves that you can see there, and then also it's designed so that you can use it this way. You can
Kris:
Yep.
Maglite:
And you can use it this way. Um, so that there are the various holds the har hold, the FBI hold, um, that are used with, uh, handheld firearms. And, and so this is designed with that in mind. And also if it's inclement weather, it's cold, it's wet, you're wearing thick gloves. Yeah. Uh, that it's gonna be those ridges, which by the way, makes this product unique because they're actually grooved into the aluminum as opposed to being something that is like a plastic thing that slides on you.
Kris:
So they're not gonna break. They're gonna,
Maglite:
And they're permanently there.
Kris:
Yeah. And you know, at first, first I grabbed like, well, these things are gonna be in the way, but when I grabbed, they just, it fit perfect right between my fingers. And you're right on the Harry's method, doing your shooting and come to an E3 arms, of course we'll teach you the Harry's method. Right, right. I'm sure we have something online with it as well, but yeah, having that ability where you've got that stopper on the back because your hands gets extremely sweaty and that Harry's method it, the light will slip. It does. And with this, if you're married and you like to wear your wedding ring, right, because you have some ethics of Right. And integrity, it will slip on that. But if you've got it with those ridges, and I found out it, honestly, it catch not catches in a bad way, you're gonna rip the ring off, but it stops it and you know it's there. Right. And it's not gonna move on you. And especially, and I, my hands get really sweaty and I've been training with it, and I, but it doesn't move. And I've had issues with the other lights that
Maglite:
Do. Okay. So we're gonna do one more with Kris Tanto gonna take this a break here. Uh, and, uh, we'll get the rest of the story on the other side. This has been the Maglite podcast.