Manipulating both a hand-held light and a firearm can be difficult — if not impossible — in a high-stress, fast-moving situation. Doing so ties up both hands: one hand to hold and operate the light and the other to control and operate the firearm.

These problems don’t exist with a weapon-mounted light. Such a device will be there for you when lighting is critically reduced — without adversely affecting your ability to handle your firearm — and will also allow you to maintain a free hand for other tasks.

And since the light is mounted on the firearm, the light is always aligned with that firearm’s muzzle. That is both ideal and problematic. A weapon-mounted light is part of the weapon system and needs to be treated as such — especially when it comes to threat identification.

If you’re not justified in drawing and pointing your gun, you’re not justified in pointing a gun-mounted light. That’s why it’s important to get yourself a first-rate hand-held unit. It allows you to safely assess a situation without pointing a firearm at anything that doesn’t need a firearm pointed at it. And if you run a quick search, it won’t take you long to realize that SureFire is universally recognized for producing the finest and most innovative tactical illumination tools and equipment in the industry.

For 25 years, SureFire CombatLights with the patented CombatGrip have set the standard for hand-held tactical illumination. Optimized for use with the Rogers (SureFire) Technique, the CombatGrip allows for easy light manipulation with a two-handed grip on the handgun. The CombatGrip’s distinct profile works exceptionally well with other popular shooting techniques too.

The founder and president of Sure-Fire, Dr. John Matthews, introduced the SureFire 6Z CombatLight in 1997.

FBI Agent Bill Rogers, a top firearms instructor and the father of the modern Kydex and security holster, saw that many shooting techniques employing hand-held lights failed to utilize Sure-Fire’s compact high-output flashlights with a tailcap switch. A user could hold a SureFire 6P flashlight between the middle and index fingers of his or her support hand and turn the light on and off by pressing the tailcap with his or her palm — all while retaining two hands on the handgun. Rogers modified the flashlight by slipping a piece of bicycle inner tube around the body of it to provide traction and better leverage to operate the tailcap switch.

As a result of Rogers’ clever idea, Matthews developed a light specifically designed based on Rogers’ technique. And voila: The SureFire 6Z Combat-Light was born. SureFire engineers have since refined Matthews’ prototype.

The original CombatLight quickly caught on in the tactical worlds of law enforcement and military operations and moved from there into the privatecitizen market. And 25 years later, it’s still being updated and reissued.

The CombatLight quickly caught on within the shooting community, and successive models were also positively received, with plenty of them adopted by leading law enforcement agencies. The FBI issued a SureFire Z2 CombatLight to all graduates of the FBI Academy, and it also became a standard-issue piece of equipment for all U.S. Air Marshals.

As technology advanced over the years, the CombatLight evolved. The incandescent lamp assembly was replaced by a virtually indestructible high-performance LED. And advancements in LED technology resulted in a previously unthinkable lumen output and provided longer battery life compared to an incandescent lamp.

SureFire has two different Combat-Lights — the G2ZX and G2Z-MV. Both models feature a Nitrolon body and a hard-anodized aluminum head, and each is powered by two 123A lithium batteries. Both models are single-output and are O-ring and gasket-sealed.

They also have an IPX7 rating, which means they’re protected against immersion in water up to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes.

The G2ZX and G2Z-MV differ in output and beam pattern. Beam pattern is the relationship between light output and beam intensity. A tighter beam with a bright “hot spot” has greater reach.

The current G2ZX has a 600-lumen output — sent from a micro-textured polycarbonate reflector that provides plenty of reach — combined with significant surround light, while the G2Z-MV has a greater output at 800 lumens. Sure-Fire’s proprietary MaxVision Beam provides natural close-range lighting with a wide surround for target identification and improved situational awareness.

For purposes of comparison, the 6Z, with its incandescent P60 Lamp Assembly, produced a whopping (for that time) 65 lumens, which was the same output as a five-D-cell Maglite of the era.

The user interface is simple and straightforward. The G2ZX features a tactical tailcap: Push for momentary-on and twist for constant-on.

The G2Z-MV includes a click-style tailcap: Press for momentary activation, push further for constant-on mode, and click again to turn it off. SureFire designed the click switch with enough throw so that you cannot select the constant-on option unless you intentionally drive the switch button in. Both tailcaps have a lock-out feature, which is important in prevent accidental activation while you’re traveling or otherwise transporting equipment.

■ Donald A. Keller came up with the idea of the Kel-Lite flashlight while working for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department during the 1960s. He grew tired of breaking cheap units, so he devised his own tactical flashlight. Keller partnered with Frank Patti, who owned a machine shop in Covina, California, and produced a prototype in early 1968. The flashlight was rust- and corrosion-proof; included a high-intensity polished reflector, an unbreakable lens and interchangeable components; and came with a lifetime warranty. In 1969, Keller left the sheriff’s department and went into business full-time. As Kel-Lite expanded, Keller and Patti began to add other law enforcement equipment to the product line. In 1972, both left the company after clashing with the company’s general manager. In the early ‘80s, Streamlight acquired Kel-Lite, later changing its name to Excalibur. Keller continued to produce and design flashlights, starting another flashlight company, Pro-Light, in 1973, and helped to develop the Maglite flashlight and other products.

Neither the G2ZX nor the G2Z-MV comes with a pocket clip, but each light does come with a lanyard. Pocket carry without a clip necessitates dropping the flashlight loose into the pocket, lanyard protruding for an easy draw, but this is not the only option. The best pocket-carry solution I’ve found for the G2ZX and G2Z-MV is the Low Profile Carry (LPC) Clip from Thyrm. All Thyrm products are designed and made in the U.S. and come with a limited lifetime warranty. MSRP is $17.99.

SureFire is discontinuing the G2Z-MV, but fret not. It will be replaced by a new CombatLight that SureFire is understandably tight-lipped about. There are no plans to discontinue the G2ZX.

MSRP for the G2ZX is $99, and MSRP for the G2Z-MV is $132. While some components are imported, many Sure-Fire products are completely made in the U.S. and are backed by SureFire’s No-Hassle Warranty.

SureFire makes a special Combat-Light for Haley Strategic Partners: the Disruptive 3nvironments Firefly Technique, or D3FT (pronounced “deft”).

Developed by Force Reconnaissance Marine veteran Travis Haley, of Haley Strategic, the D3FT is a single-output light that features a compact design for EDC.

The flashlight has a hard-anodized aluminum body and head and a machined aluminum plunger (grip ring).

It is O-ring and gasket-sealed, and it too has an IPX7 rating. Its 500-lumen output utilizes a TIR reflector for optimal throw and surround light. It has a click-style tailcap with three options:

Push for momentary activation, press further for constant-on, and click again for off. It has a lockout feature and is designed to prevent inadvertent constant-on activation. It is powered by a single 123A lithium cell and wears a robust two-way pocket clip for easy carry. (Like the others, it too ships with a lanyard.) The D3FT is available exclusively through Haley Strategic for $169.

The CombatLight was quite revolutionary when it was introduced 25 years ago, and SureFire remains a premiere manufacturer of top-tier tools for today’s concealed carrier. The challenge facing every defender — how to operate in darkness without giving up any advantage to an attacker and without harming anyone who does not need to be harmed — will likely never truly be bested. But with units like those put out by SureFire, it is easier to meet that challenge than at any other time in human history.

Predators can be unpredictable in some ways, but they are very predictable in others. And the more you understand their habits, the safer you will be.

When Tampa, Florida, native Alexis Martinez answered his door at 2 a.m., he immediately recognized Samona Louise Ramey, a woman he had briefly dated. She asked him for a ride. As Martinez approached his car to give her a lift, two men jumped him, beat him and forced him back inside his home. After robbing him, one of the men shot and killed Martinez along with his pregnant girlfriend. Martinez’s tragic story reveals a lot about the psychology of predators and illustrates one of their most classic tactics. 1

Predators seek compliant victims. They do not want a fight, and sometimes compliance might save your life. But as Martinez’s case demonstrates, that isn’t the case when you know the criminals’ identities. If a predator thinks he or she will encounter resistance from an individual or be easily identified, that predator will often pick someone else as his or her target. That’s why obvious external security devices, such as security cameras and doorbell camera systems, often force predators to look elsewhere. But simply because a predator doesn’t want a fight doesn’t mean you’re safe if the woman sizing you up is 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 90 pounds and you’re 6 foot, 5 inches tall and weigh 220 pounds. Weapons are great equalizers, but predators use classic psychological tactics against their victims. And understanding these tactics can give you the upper hand.

In Virgil’s ancient poem Aeneid, after a 10-year standoff, the Greeks present the Trojans in the besieged city of Troy with a giant wooden horse as an offering and appear to withdraw. The gift was accepted, and once inside the city’s walls, the world’s first special forces team exited from their hiding places inside the wooden horse, dispatched the few Trojans guarding the gate and opened it to let their comrades in, leading to the city ’s fall. This famous scene in Virgil’s poem gave us the idiom “beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” but it should be amended to “beware of anyone offering gifts.”

One of the most common predator tactics, designed to obtain what psychologists call “reciprocity,” is to offer a proposed victim a gift to lure him or her into a sense of comfort. It could be merely the promise of a gift designed to lead the victim to a secondary crime scene, or it might be an actual gift — such as a Rolex watch — designed to distract him or her from what’s coming.

And you guessed it: What’s coming is not going to be good.

When someone you do not know, or have known only briefly as an acquaintance, offers you a gift that you have no reason to expect, you should immediately move to Condition Yellow, and warning klaxons should sound off in your head.

Several years ago, a man dressed as a pizza-delivery person attempted to get me to open my door by telling me that I had ordered a pizza that had already been paid for. I didn’t take the bait. The “pizza” was accompanied by three other accomplices, out of view, who had unfriendly plans. I applied the belief that anything that sounds too good to be true probably is (see “It Will Never Happen to Me,” Page 62 in the January 2021 issue of CCM).

Similar to the tactic of gift offering, asking someone for a favor (in Ramey’s case, a ride) is also a clever disarming tactic. Requesting a favor makes the person asking to appear vulnerable and not in control. Appearances can be deceiving, and were Alexis Martinez still alive, he would tell you as much. Ramey knew that Martinez had video cameras, and her accomplices positioned themselves outside his view prior to the attack. Atop the reality that your potential attackers may have already thoroughly cased your residence or wherever they intend to confront you, this also reinforces that predators may not fear consequences and often believe they will escape justice for their crimes.

Females are also often used to lure victims to locations where they can be targeted. Recently, three high school students allegedly used a 17-year-old girl to lure a teenager to Show Low Lake, Arizona. Once there, two teenagers beat the 19-year-old male so badly that he required a medical airlift to save his life.

Young men — particularly socially awkward young men — are more vulnerable to this sort of tactic. 2

Another common tactic is to impersonate authority figures such as police officers, detectives, investigators and even attorneys. While most of us would hesitate to let someone we did not know into our homes, many of us are happy to accommodate law enforcement. In February 2021, a man claiming to be a detective in Lindenhurst, New York, convinced two teenage girls to get into his SUV by telling them that he was investigating gang activity in the area and it wasn’t safe. He dropped the older girl off at a library and took the younger one to a park where he inappropriately touched her. Fortunately, she was able to kick open the door, escape and call 911. The man was apprehended, but the ruse worked because the teens trusted what appeared to be an authority figure. 3

The more confident and articulate a predator, the more likely he or she is to attempt using stolen authority to gain entry or cooperation. Never expect a predator to play fair; that’s like expecting a bull not to charge you because you’re a vegetarian. Most people are afraid of authority — particularly the police. That is true even when they know they have not done anything wrong.

Predators, who often have a great deal of experience with the police, understand this. They count on it and use it to their advantage whenever possible.

In addition, many of the props necessary to pull off these types of crimes are available online for a reasonable price. 4

A pair of pants and a polo from 5.11, for example — combined with a few patches, a Safariland holster on a web belt and a bogus badge — could fool someone looking through a peephole or a Blink surveillance camera into thinking that he or she is staring at a law enforcement officer.

For this reason, before you allow entry to anyone who claims to be a detective, an investigator or a police officer, it’s a good idea to call 911 to verify the identity of the person at your door. (Never use a number the person gives you. Always call 911.) A real police officer will understand and likely congratulate you on your common sense, while a predator will become more demanding and start threatening. Watch for these telltale signs.

Generally speaking, we all want to be liked. We all want to be perceived as good people. Predators know this, and they count on it. They use a number of tactics designed to play to a person’s desire to be liked and accepted.

Aniah Blanchard was a 19-year-old college student in Auburn, Alabama.

She was coming home late in the evening and stopped at a gas station after dropping her brother off at his apartment. It’s still unclear if she willingly let 30-year-old Ibraheem Yazeed accompany her or if he forced Aniah into her car before they drove off together. She reportedly texted her roommate that she was with a man named Eric she had just met. Investigators found her car — with bloodstained seats and a bullet hole in the door — some 55 miles away in Montgomery, Alabama. Yazeed allegedly took her to a secondary crime scene and shot her to death. While Yazeed has not confessed and has not been tried, it appears he was able to manipulate the young woman with charm or some other type of social engineering. 5

Predators know that people who make commitments tend to keep them, and commitments provide leverage.

That is why a predator will often ask for a small commitment (or sometimes a large one) in order to assert control over a victim and dominate the situation. A person who tells a predator he or she will comply with the predator’s demands sometimes feels bound to do so.

When a disbarred attorney broke into Aaron Quinn’s residence in California, abducted Quinn’s then-girlfriend Denise Huskins and demanded ransom, the predator placed webcams and taped off the floor to control Quinn. Instead of honoring his commitment not to hurt Huskins, the predator took her to another location and repeatedly raped her.

But the predator’s control over Quinn enabled him to make Quinn call in sick for Huskins, thereby raising suspicion with the police that Quinn, and not a random home invader, had taken and harmed her (see “Make or Break,” Page 70 in the April 2022 issue of CCM).

A predator will often use fear to extract commitment and then double-down to keep the victim held to that commitment, often resulting in death or serious injury. Viewed objectively and dispassionately in the calm light of not having been awakened at 3 a.m. to people ransacking your home, the control measures implemented by the invader in the Huskins case seem far-fetched.

It is reasonable to wonder why Quinn didn’t just call 911 to begin with. But his girlfriend was a hostage, and he knew the predator was watching and was using his cellphone to keep a close eye on him.

Jayme Closs also understands how predators control their victims. On Oct. 15, 2018, a man stalked and abducted the 13-year-old girl from her home near Barron, Wisconsin. He later told authorities he decided to kidnap her, supposedly on impulse, after seeing her get on a school bus in front of her home.

After shooting and murdering her parents, he took the teenager to a family cabin 70 miles away in Gordon, Wisconsin. He kept her closely restrained with psychological measures. When he had to leave the cabin, he put her under a bed in his room, boxing her in with weighted bins. This worked for 88 days, until one day he left, telling her he would return in two hours. As soon as he was gone, Closs pushed away the bins, got out from under the bed and fled from the house. She ran into a local woman, who took her to a nearby home. The resident there armed himself and called the police. 6

SPOIL THEIR PLANS Almost all predators use some form of approach that is designed to minimize our normal appreciation of warning signals. They may be well-dressed, well-spoken and even appear kind. But regardless of their initial impressions, they distract their victims long enough to gain control.

Understanding these dangerous mind games and why they work gives you an advantage when dealing with people you do not know and who may not have your best interests at heart, and knowing these tactics allows you to adjust your level of situational awareness accordingly.

(1) Mary Stringini, “After 9 months on the run, police arrest man wanted for murdering two people, unborn child in Ruskin,” ABC Action News, Sept. 13, 2018, ABCActionNews.com/news/region-south-hillsborough/ruskin/ after-9-months-on-the-run-policearrest-man-wanted-for-murderingtwo-people-unborn-child-in-ruskin. (2) Clayton Klapper, “19-year-old man hospitalized after alleged coordinated attack at Show Low Lake,” ABC 15, Aug. 11, 2021, ABC15.com/news/crime/19-year-old-male-hospitalizedafter-alleged-coordinated-attack-atshow-low-lake. (3) “Donald Cristiano Jr. Arrested on Charges of Impersonating Police Officer, Abducting Teenage Girl on Long Island,” CBS New York, Feb. 4, 2021, CBSNews.com/newyork/news/ lindenhurst-teen-abduction/. (4) Cop-Collector.comcan hook up a predator with Joe Friday ’s LAPD badge and ID card. (5) James Brown, “Family fights for justice and a new law after murder of UFC star’s stepdaughter, CBS News, Aug. 28, 2021, CBSNews.com/news/ani- ah-blanchard-murder-family-justice- 48-hours/. (6) Natalie Brophy and Andy Thompson, “Two years after teenager Jayme Closs escaped from captivity, her case remains a source of hope for missing children,” The Post-Crescent, Jan. 7, 2021, PostCrescent.com/story/news/2021/01/07/jayme-closs-escapecaptor-still-has-deep-impact-twoyears-later/4007686001/.