One everyday carry tool that often gets overlooked is a flashlight. It’s a tool I carry with me every single day. Most of us are familiar with those large, bulky flashlights that require several D batteries that seemed to always make an appearance when the lights go out. Nowadays, flashlights have come a long way. Improvements in flashlight design have made them smaller, more powerful, and available with many extra features. In fact, flashlights are now a part of a lot of peoples everyday carry. And for me it’s one of those tools I never leave home without. I started carrying a flashlight regularly about two years ago for the reasons listed below.

4 Reasons to Carry a Flashlight

#1. Light up dark areas

This is obviously a no-brainer; it’s what they were intended for after all. Being situationally aware means you can observe and detect something or someone with enough time to avoid or react. However, you can’t detect what you can’t see. A flashlight will light up those dark areas or spaces so you can be safe and give yourself an advantage over any potential threats – whether that is a person looking to do harm or a possible obstacle in your path you could trip over.

When the lights go out having a flashlight will be your best option to get to safety. Even in the daytime if you’re in a large retail store like Costco, a mall, or taking the subway to work it will be to your advantage to have a strong flashlight light up your path if the power goes out.

Alternatively, the use of a flashlight can make sure you’re being seen by others. For those of you that like to take a walk after dinner or need to walk the dog before bed having a flashlight at night can make you visible to passing cars and other pedestrians.

Some of you might be thinking, “But my phone has a flashlight built in.” While true, your phone does have a flashlight mode it’s not the same. It’s not even close. The iPhone’s flashlight ranges from 12 lumens on the lowest setting to 26 lumens on the highest setting (more on lumens below). Think of your phone’s flashlight as a backup option. It will light up dark areas, but it doesn’t do it well. The phone’s flashlight wasn’t really designed to be used for extended periods of time which makes it awkward to hold and maneuver. It’s also not strong enough to prevent a threat from advancing or simply blocking the beam of light with their hand. The husband and I played around with an iPhone flashlight versus my normal everyday carry flashlight in our dark bedroom and the two didn’t even compare.

#2. Temporarily blind a threat

Before a potential threat gets close enough a flashlight can be used defensively to disorient or to temporarily blind. This will give you time to create distance, escape, or for the potential attacker to retreat. This is where lumens are important. Simply put, lumens are the brightness of the bulb. The higher the lumen number the brighter the light. I’d recommend a flashlight with a minimum of at least 300 lumens on the max setting. The higher the better. This will be strong enough to force a threat to move their eyes away from the beam of light. Even if they put both hands up to block the light you can maneuver the flashlight around them and still be effective. Most defensive flashlights now have a strobe setting for an additional way to disorient someone. Even if yours doesn’t, in most cases toggling the button cap will produce the same results.

#3. Improvised striking device

Most “tactical” flashlights can be used when a threat cannot be avoided as they can act as a powerful striking device. The main difference between your regular flashlight and a tactical flashlight is what they are made of and a some improved features. Most tactical flashlights are made of high quality aluminum and/or stainless steel and have a bezeled head and/or tail cap. When used as a striking tool, the bezeled head can deal significant damage to an attacker’s head, face, or collarbone. The bezel feature creates sharp edges on what would normally be a smooth surface and even an indirect strike can cause damage. Even without a bezeled head, a high quality flashlight can still increase your striking power. Flashlights are now small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and still have several hundreds of lumens with the additional defense features of a striking device.

#4. A flashlight is easy to carry

As I mentioned above, flashlights are now small enough to fit in the palm of your hand but still pack a powerful 1-2 punch with illumination and striking features. They can also be easily carried in a pocket, on a waistband, or handheld without being noticeable. Unlike with firearms and pepper spray there is no age restriction. Plus, there isn’t a cost involved with training which can be done safely at home with a partner (who won’t mind getting temporarily blinded 😊 ). Well, maybe a new battery. Finally, flashlights are legal to carry everywhere.

We have a lot of flashlights (regular and tactical) in our house for different purposes. From ones we use just around the house to the ones we carry. Over the years we’ve changed our carry flashlights for various reasons whether that be wanting higher lumens, a different size, or to serve a different purpose.

I always carry the SureFire Stiletto Pro; I love this flashlight for it’s slim profile versus the traditional round profiles. It fits in my waistband and doesn’t bulge out. It wasn’t until I got the regular Stiletto that I started carrying a flashlight everyday because it was so easy to carry. My husband carries the SureFire E1D Defender. They actually discontinued this one but they do have a new one (the E2D) out that is slimmer and longer in length. Besides the one I carry on my person I always keep an extra flashlight in my bag (the 5.11 EDC PL2AA), at work, and in my work backpack. And we always have one bedside (SureFire Fury IntelliBeam).

The smaller Streamlight and SureFire Titan flashlights are great “starter” flashlights. I used to keep one on my keychain until I moved to carrying it on my person.

A quality flashlight will be an investment but should last a lifetime if it’s well maintained. I strongly recommend and encourage you to get into the habit of carrying a flashlight with you, even in the daytime.