You let your wife see the price of your gear? That's not survival, that's attempted suicide!
Just remember to leave aclause in your will that she is to sell your gear for what it's worth, not what you told her it costs.

Even an AA mini maglite used kubotan style (fist strikes down as a hammer is simplest) will be devastating and you need a keyring torch anyway.
What other weapon can you carry in your hand, at any time and then say 'I had my keys in my hand and tried to push him away, people use torches as weapons? really officer; I had no idea!"
To give an idea of how much force you can get; the Surefire pen has a windscreen smashing cap.
The Sock

Over the past few years there has been a lot of discussion about the effectiveness of flashlights as weapons over on the Candlepower.com forum:


http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/index.php

When I was instructing at FLETC we taught that to have "dazzel effect" a flashlight needed a minimum of 13,000 candlepower. No idea what that translates to in lumens. More is always better. While it was not a true "stun" it would "dazzle" and cause an auto response to squint or close the eyes, and look away even if only for a moment.
Is that the idea they refer to by "stun factor"?

Yea, that is what they refer to. The "dazzling" effect can give you the upper edge in a fight, or give you that second or two head start to get away. It's a small advantage, but it's better than no advantage. Now, when combined with other techniques (like kubotan-style strikes or firearms practice) it has shown to be especially effective.

Now, as far as candlepower vs. lumens, they're two different form of measurement. Lumens measures the lights total output, candlepower measures the brightness of a particular spot of light. They aren't really comparable measurements. Think of a laser, it would be very high on the candlepower scale, but very low in lumens. Typically, lumens is the better measurement for a lights actual effectiveness, with around 60 lumens considered the minimum for an acceptable "dazzle effect."

Not to pick on anyone but the whole idea of self-defense flashlights really needs to be approached with caution.

I don't know where people get the idea that simply flashing your Surefire into the bad guy's face will somehow make him turn and run for his life.

In the military/law enforcement field, tactical flashlights are thought of as an accessory to the primary weapon but never really a weapon in its own right. You can "zap" a bad guy with 100 or 200 lumens as often as you wish. Yes, it will be dazzling momentarily and might buy you a few moments, but that's it. In a shootout that might just make the difference between life and death if it means you can hit the bad guy before he can pull the trigger.

But if you don't carry a firearm, that same flashlight will be much less of an asset on its own at close quarters. From what I've seen, I seriously don't believe the light beam of your latest Surefire, Nitecore, Fenix or whatever happens to be in vogue these days will stop a determined attacker. Not by a long shot.

Worse yet, while you're trying to flash the assailant in the eyes you should probably be doing something else entirely. Like maybe running the heck out of dodge, looking for an improvised weapon better than your flashlight, taking advantage of terrain or at least getting into a fighting stance so the bad guy doesn't just tackle you to the ground like a rag doll...

IMHO the only real use of a flashlight in a physical confrontation is as a baton. Obviously, that's one field where a huge Maglite is at an advantage. Smaller flashligts (like AA-cell sized) have a lot less to offer in that department. Trying to use a small "tactical" light as a kubotan simply can't compare to the impact of a 2lb. Maglite. In terms of size and weight, a single or double AA-cell light is little better than a large pen - basically a kubotan. Read: not very effective and only really useful in the hands of a strong and well trained individual. (And let's keep it on a proper perspective: a small can of pepper spray is only marginally bigger and likely much more effective.)

In either case the flashlight is only a small impact weapon with a very short reach that adds a little weight to your punch. Nothing more than that. It might be helpful in a fight but it still means getting involved in a
hand-to-hand confontation where you'll likely get hurt, maybe killed, especially if you have no real training under your belt and your strength and conditioning levels are not on par.

From what I've read, a strobe at around 10Hz is a lot more effective at disorienting than a continuous beam of the same brightness.

I carry and use a flashlight regularly but I don't see one cracking into my top ten weapon list anytime soon.

Like others have said; a brief moment of disorientation might buy you an opportunity. I fear that those who buy into all the hype believe that an attacker is going to shriek in pain and grab their face as though they've been doused in acid.

I think the idea is to use the high powered 200+ Lumen 10Hz pulse flashlight to destroy the opponents acquired night adapted vision, remembering of course to keep one of your own eyes shut, then turn off the flashlight, open your closed eye which still has the night adapted vision then whack the opponent around the side of the head with the edge of the stainless steel bezel on the front of the flashlight knocking the opponent to the ground then to whip out the your Benchmade tactical combat pen, inserting it into the opponents nose then lightly tapping it further into the base of opponents brain with the bottom of the flashlight to stun the opponent... ... then use your BCB wire saw as an improvised garrote. Wrapping the wire saw around the opponents neck a couple of times then using the flashlight which was inserted into both the pull rings by rotating to maximise the mechanical advantage of the garrote.. ..

Of course it does highly depend on who your opponent is. Best just to put your hands up if your opponent was Eddie Stone with a dynamic hammer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVz6rqpnMBY

On using your flashlight as a weapon, can I extend and elaborate on my earlier post on this subject:

"All it takes is an attitude of aggression, and the will to beat your opponent. Since they're out to rape, rob or kill you, hopefully you have the will to end their efforts."

I learned my first self-defense lesson from a girl in college, call her 'Darcy.' Darcy was a student at a nearby college, I was a student working whatever hours I could get at the local hospital, this one a 4-midnight shift as assistant in the ER. The police brought in an assailant in custody, with contusions to his right eye, his cheek, and possible skull and facial fractures, he had a concussion. His eye was bloody and pushed around in the socket and I remember thinking, whoa, that's really messed up. It had taken several direct hits with the heft of a flashlight. Darcy also came in, with a cut to her face and she had been hit to her head, bluing her eye. The assailant was on a gurney, Darcy came in under her own power. It was obvious who had won the encounter. The idea of a personal assault on a stranger was big news in this rural county, there were about 6 on duty cops moving around the ER. I assisted the nurse and doctor while they cleaned up Darcy, and was asked to stay with her around the cops, get her water etc. Some of them actually thought Darcy must have been the aggressor, the assailant was so badly beaten up, I remember someone mumbling about the colleges bring their problems into the town. The truth was Darcy was walking home from the library, along a dark street, and the assailant came from behind with a knife and started to pull her into the bushes. She reacted as she had been trained, with aggression - she reached back and grabbed his hair, and began striking him as hard as she could with the butt and lighted end of her flashlight around his face and eyes, which caused him to let go of her and drop his knife. She didn't stop hitting until he hit the ground, then she ran and called for help. She was still calming down from the event, her adrenaline turning back from aggression to weak-kneed shock at what she had done, she started to cry a bit. She said she was sorry that she was walking alone in the dark, but the town was such a generally safe place, that really shook her up. She told me the other thing she hadn't done right was she hadn't crippled his knee like her Dad had taught in self-defense class. But she done good obviously. And her little c battery plastic flashlight inflicted a whole lotta damage.

The good thing I did later was to take a similar self-defense class, which was made up mostly of women, most of whom had an assault in their past. My buddies actually ribbed me for attending what they thought was a girls class, they couldn't imagine the aggression that can get stirred up in a fight for one's life. It doesn't matter if you're male or female though, violence will hit anybody.

That is a great story and it shows exactly what self-defense is about. It sounds like the girl was trained well and had the right attitude to turn the tables. At the end of the day, that's all that counts.

The problem with this thread is a little different, though. Sure, you can use a flashlight as a fistload and it will do more damage than a bare hand. Pretty much anything can be used to hurt an assailant. A solid punch (if done right and lands solid), rock, trash can, chair, baseball bat... Doesn't take a genius to figure that out. But it takes real guts plus at least some training and/or physical attributes to fight back and successfully defend yourself if assaulted. Without that, no tactical flashlight is going to help.

The real issue IMO is that a lot of people fall for the hype. It's comforting to think that having a Surefire at hand will somehow give you the upper hand in a fight. Unfortunately, the average Joe is out of shape, has no training and all his tactical flashlight will give him is a false sense of confidence.

That's why I think it's important to point out that no such thing as a flashlight (or even a "tactical" knife... heck, even a gun) will make you any safer per se. Not without the right skills, attitude and awareness. As a self-defense improvised weapon, a flashlight has many, many limitations. If you need some light, it's great to have it in your pocket. But if self-defense is a major consideration you'd do well to look for a better alternative. At least that's how it is IME. YMMV.