[wolfman97]

I have owned and used handguns for decades, and I just bought my first laser for one. I got a LaserMax internal sight for my S&W Sigma 40. (After an initial problem with the gun, where I had to send it back for a new barrel and some trigger work, it has digested a few thousand rounds of just about everything without a problem -- for all those who would ask. I have had it since shortly after they first came out and I definitely like it.)

Here are the goods and bads of the laser as I see it.

First, I am a civilian and it is against the law in California to point weapons at people without damn good cause so I don't think I would be using the laser for intimidation very much. I have pretty much decided that I will exhaust all the other options for dealing with a situation, I will have confirmed in my own mind that I have good legal cause to shoot and then, if I need to pull a gun, the BG will probably see the muzzle blast first.

There probably are situations, such as multiple BGs with knives or something, where pulling the gun and shining the light might be a good idea as opposed to just blazing away. That's possible but, as a civilian, I honestly haven't encountered many of them. (A little vigilance helps in avoiding such situations and I don't have to travel to bad neighborhoods much.) If the BG has a gun, I certainly wouldn't put a red dot on his chest and then give him the option of deciding who shoots first.

The most likely scenario is someone in my home at night when they shouldn't be and, if that's the case, he should assume he died when he climbed in through the window. If an intruder is in my home, I certainly wouldn't want the police to get all confused listening to two different stories. It is easier to sort things out with one dead body and one story. Besides, I wouldn't want anybody suing me because I wounded him. I used to be an insurance adjuster and one of the things I learned is that it is far cheaper to kill someone than it is to leave them seriously injured and requiring medical care for the rest of their lives.

One place where I can imagine using the laser as intimidation is if the BG was holding an innocent person in front of them. In that situation, you don't want to shoot if there is any risk to an innocent party, so the laser is perhaps one more method of convincing the BG to give it up while there is still time. In that kind of situation, it would give you more freedom to look around while holding steady on the BG.

Second, as others have pointed out, no add-on toy is a substitute for knowing how to properly handle the weapon, without a laser, or sights for that matter. If you aren't good enough to hit what you are aiming at under any conditions when it is proper to shoot, then spend your money on ammo at the range, not lasers. I am certainly not the best shot in the world, but the last time I went to the range I put 200 rounds in one big ragged hole in the forehead of the silhouette target, so I am not going to rely on a laser to save my life.

Cost was not much of a consideration for me (I am a computer consultant, so I make considerably more than the typical cop) but I had never had a laser before and I didn't want to spend upwards of 400 bucks on something that I wasn't absolutely sure I was going to like. I bided my time, and eventually I found a LaserMax on sale for my weapon for 150 bucks. At that price, I decided it was worth trying.

If I got a laser, I wanted the Lasermax because I had looked the rest over and just didn't like most of them. The ones that mount on the trigger guard are just hokey, not to mention the fact that they aren't likely to hold a zero. My gun doesn't have a utility rail so adding one that attaches to a utility rail would mean buying a new gun. Besides, any laser that attaches to the outside makes the gun bulkier and harder to handle, and then you have to get new holsters, hang some wires on the outside, etc.. I looked into getting one installed internally -- that was about 550 bucks, nuff said. The LaserMax just replaces the guide rod and spring, so it doesn't have those problems.

Anything engineered is a series of tradeoffs, however. The one problem it does have is battery life. The first batteries in it lasted about 45 minutes of fairly continuous use at the range. Oh well, batteries are cheap enough if you look around, and I just keep a big box of them handy and change them regularly. If the batteries go dead at the critical time, as some have mentioned might happen, then see the part about 200 rounds in one ragged hole with iron sights. So what?

Alignment-wise, I found it shot about four inches low from the point of aim of the sights at 25 feet, the typical maximum distance I figured I would probably be using it for self-defense. That's not perfect, but it will do for home defense. I may try to adjust it later.

The first and biggest advantage I found was in training. If I was flinching or pulling a shot, there was no kidding myself about it. It is a great way to practice your trigger squeeze, and I think the investment was worth it just for that.

I haven't tried out in the field for hunting yet, but it seems like it might be a lot of fun there, too. I wouldn't expect to work in broad daylight, of course, so it would only be useful in the later afternoon or early evening.

One thing I learned right away is that the laser/gun combo has some limitations. One of the things I thought was how cool it would be to be able to hold at the waist, not use the sights at all, and still put all the shots in the ten ring. Well, I could, but the Sigma kept throwing red-hot brass in my face, so I went back to a more conventional position.

I think I definitely would use it in a defense situation. The reason is that I have other people besides me in my home and, if I have to shoot, I want to be absolutely sure where the bullet is going to go. I can shoot pretty well, but I know just from shooting out in the countryside that it isn't always given that you will have the lighting or shooting conditions where you can leisurely line up a perfect sight picture and think it over. The most likely scenario is in my home, at night, with both me and the BG moving. That's a bit different than lining up on the ten ring on a well-lit piece of paper at the range.

Even if you do line up a reasonably good sight picture, it is really easy to have a small problem with your grip or something that points the muzzle about a quarter-inch off where you thought it was pointing, especially if you are using a short-barreled gun. That small deviation at the muzzle can translate into a big miss -- which means the bullet is off through one or more walls hitting things I didn't intend to hit. The laser at least gives me a visual confirmation that the sight picture is really as good as I thought it was -- or allows me to shoot without a sight picture at all, if that's the situation.

But, I wouldn't have it on until I was just about ready to shoot. The BG will see red flash, big bang -- nothing more. As I said, if I think I have to pull the weapon at all, it is probably already too late for him. Negotiations have already ended. It would only serve as confirmation of the imminent kill under adverse conditions, not intimidation. (Although I have to admit that, if I was in someone else's house in the middle of the night and I suddenly saw this red dot moving around the walls, I would look for the nearest exit. Of course, I wouldn't be burglarizing someone else's house, so who knows whether the BG would feel the same? He wasn't rational when he broke in.)

Overall, I am quite glad I got it and my next handgun purchases will probably be based in part on whether I can get a good unobtrusive (hopefully reasonably cheap) laser for the gun (e.g., Lasermax, Crimson Trace grips, etc.). It is worth it just for the advantage it gives in training. I imagine it will be quite helpful when I get a chance to go out and practice point-and-shoot, bouncing tin cans around.