The problem with a lot of these opinions is that if you don't have extensive firearms experience, have been a cop, are unbiased, have been in the same situation, know if the training the cop got was adequate, and finally, were there...then you’re speaking from ignorance. As with most matters, there is more here than meets the eye. People like to mention the Diallo shooting: had the cops in that shooting had flashlights on their guns AND the training to know how to use them under stress, there would likely not have been a Diallo shooting. It’s easy to hate on cops, it’s easy to blame equipment you know nothing about, but it actually takes commitment, action, and finally tax dollars, to reduce the conditions that lead to crime, and to give police officers the equipment and the training to operate safely and effectively. But it’s so much easier to spout uneducated opinions based on emotional bias.

Ever been in a school yard fight, remember the weak feeling in your knees, the adrenaline pumping? Now try imagining entering a strange apartment in the dark, managing a radio, pepper spray, taser, cuffs, flashlight, and gun...all the while wondering if your gonna take a bullet in the face. Don't forget your department's use-of-force policy, the potential loss of your job and the civil suit that follows that will leave you and your family bankrupt and emotionally broken. You've had the minimum training the tax payers and your administration were willing to give you, and if your lucky you got a few hours of training on how to use a flashlight thrown in there. Bottom line, the last thing a cop wants to do is get killed, the second to last thing he wants to do is go through the hell of a shooting aftermath.

And to the UK guy that said cops are cowards because they carry guns…try walking around with a target on your back for a salary that won’t allow you to live in the city you police. Better yet, try life without a cop…hint: you’ll need to get yourself a gun. The UK is a different culture, that and the fact that the citizens are under nearly constant video surveillance, is one of the reasons bobbies (some of them) don’t carry guns, for now.

Cops are people just like the ones you work with. Some see it as a calling, most are just working a job, and a few are substandard.

Does it really matter when you have cops out there who don't know the difference between left and right, taser and handgun? San Francisco Transit Shooting, anyone?

More than flashlights on their weapons, the NYPD need brains in their skulls. One complete failure of an entire department. Get rid of Ray Kelly immediately, bring federal oversight to this deathly ill joke of a department and retrain every single street cop out there. Can we please bring back Will Bratton?

Makes zero sense to me. Adding to the instructor's comments, you're taught to hold your light AWAY from your body since the bad guy would use it as a target. To put it on the weapon and over your center mass is asking for problems.

they should have cameras on their guns, so we can see when they shoot unarmed civilians.

Sure, and while were at it, how about a bottle opener and a straight razor too!

Cops can text and drive but can't turn on a flashlight ?

Two words: Picatinny rail.

It is mounted to where the rail would be on that gun. Where you gonna put it? The slide?

Sure, gun/flashlight ... knife/chewing gum... mace/leotard ... knock yourselves out!

NOT!

Anyone who's actually handled one of these devices knows that you have to be half retarded to confuse the gun's trigger with the flashlight activating switch. Which doesn't say much for the NYPD.

ok rambo

But the movies make 'em look so cool with the smoking effect.
:(

Wouldn't having a light mounted on a gun be a way of saying "Hey criminal, I'm over here!"?

When I first read the headline I thought it said: Should Cops Have Fleshlights Mounted on their Guns?

And I thought well...it might be a distraction...

Every NYPD semi-auto for the past couple of decades is, by regulation, equipped with "Tritium" night sights by the manufacturer. Something like this shouldn't be necessary, and I don't see how it could be even allowed under the guidelines -- except perhaps that this was ESU so weapon regulations are different. A patrol officer, as far as I know, couldn't use something like this and is in fact required to have a standard "tubular-type" flashlight as a primary light. A "mini" or "lantern" light can be carried, but is specifically considered a backup.

And it's really not hard to grip a handgun and a flashlight at the same time, if it's necessary.

Having night sights isn't the same as having a flashlight.

That being said, a flashlight can be easily be held in 1 hand, and a gun in the other, or a flashlight held in 1 and the gun still in both.

Stupidest suggestion I've heard in a long time. A gun is meant for one thing - to shoot.
What stems from the tragic situation is that someone suggests a cure that's worse than the malady. Sometimes mistakes happen. That doesn't mean you go and overhaul the mechanisms you've been using. If you're not ready to tolerate a certain amount of collateral damage (I hate to use the term because it's become so politicized), then you're not ready for any endeavor.

i agree flashlights have no place on a handgun. i think laser scopes looks a lot cooler mounted on top of the pistols. add that and a iPhone dock and I'll sign up at the police academy right now.

Retrofit those gun shaped truckstop lighters to shoot caps. They get their light and we'll all be safer.