They’re becoming a lot more common. A lot of police departments didn’t or don’t allow them. Attitudes are changing fairly quickly, but there are a lot of old-timer gun people (including some who write policy for police departments) who see red dot sights as a gimmick, the same way weapon mounted lasers were in the 80s and 90s, or as a crutch to compensate for poor training.
They do have a couple of legit drawbacks like the possibility of the battery dying or the slim chance some part of the electronics might eventually break under force of the action cycling. And that’s why you’ll usually see guns with red dot optics having backup iron sights that co-witness with their dot. Also, a lot of pistol optics are open emitter designs which means, for people like cops who open carry, the optic is exposed to the weather and can collect rain, snow, or debris on the glass or between the glass and the emitter.
More and more departments are beginning to allow them though. Despite their drawbacks it’s like having a cheat code for aiming. With traditional iron sights your eyes can either focus on your target or on your front sight, but not both. With red dot sights, you put the window on the target and put the dot where you want the bullet to go. You get to see your sight and your target in focus at the same time, and it’s easier to keep both eyes open while you’re shooting. So as these optics become more proven and “battle tested,” more departments are starting to feel like the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Thanks, this is actually good info. Obligatory, glad this officer didn’t actually use his fancy red dot sight or he would’ve killed the unarmed, handcuffed, victim in the back of his car.
You didn’t mention another drawback though: if you’re dumping your mag without even looking at what you’re shooting at because you have no idea what you’re shooting at, fancy sights just add extra unnecessary weight, slowing down how quickly you can wildly swing your aim around.
With traditional iron sights your eyes can either focus on your target or on your front sight, but not both.
What in the world are you talking about? You have to focus on both to line up a shot. A trained soldier can line up a shot on a moving target at 300 feet and hit center mass in under 2.5 seconds.
I’m talking about how it’s literally impossible for your eyes to focus at more than one distance at a time. This has nothing to do with speed, training, or how good you imagine the marksmanship of your average soldier to be. It’s about how your eyes work.
Correctly lining up a shot with iron sights doesn’t mean everything in your sight picture is perfectly in focus. Unless you’re shooting a handgun with a very short sight radius you usually can’t even keep both the front and rear sights in focus at the same time, forget about doing it with both your sights and the target. Your eyes can’t focus at three distances at once. Or even two. You have to pick one.
Most people when they learn to shoot learn “front sight focus.” And front sight focus is exactly what it sounds like: the front sight post is what you focus on. You line your sights up with each other (equal height/equal light), and line that up with your target, with your focus on your front sight. With this sight picture your target will be blurry and your rear sights will be blurry, but you can still see the mass of your target well enough, and your rear sights well enough to keep everything lined up.
There’s also “target focus,” which is basically the same except the target is in focus and both your sights are blurry. The people who prefer target focus tend to be more experienced shooters who have already developed good enough muscle memory, and are comfortable enough with their weapon, that they don’t need to spend much of their attention maintaining EH/EL.
You can shoot target focused, or you can shoot front sight focused, but you can’t do both. The appeal of red dot sights is that they kind of flatten all of that out. They make it easy to look at your target normally with both eyes open. You put the optic up in front of your dominant eye, and now there’s a dot in your regular field of vision showing you where the bullet will go. You don’t need to direct your focus to the dot, you don’t need to be tempted to close an eye for a clearer sight picture, you don’t need to line up a bunch of posts. The dot is just there. It really is like having a cheat code for aiming.
You sound like you know what you’re talking about, but I’ve been shooting my entire life, and I’ve never noticed that I’m focusing on the sites or the target separately, both seem to be in equal focus for me. Perhaps I’m switching back and forth rapidly, but if so, that is imperceptible.
I didn’t just imagine the accuracy and reaction times of the average soldier, that’s the requirement to qualify with a rifle. You have to hit a certain number of targets out of 40 targets, that pop up randomly over varying distances and then go back down when you either hit them, or too much time has lapsed. At 300’ the target is up for 2.5 seconds before it goes back down. The targets are up for shorter durations as they get closer to the marksman. Or at least that’s how it used to work when I was in the Army a couple decades ago.
They’re becoming a lot more common. A lot of police departments didn’t or don’t allow them. Attitudes are changing fairly quickly, but there are a lot of old-timer gun people (including some who write policy for police departments) who see red dot sights as a gimmick, the same way weapon mounted lasers were in the 80s and 90s, or as a crutch to compensate for poor training.
They do have a couple of legit drawbacks like the possibility of the battery dying or the slim chance some part of the electronics might eventually break under force of the action cycling. And that’s why you’ll usually see guns with red dot optics having backup iron sights that co-witness with their dot. Also, a lot of pistol optics are open emitter designs which means, for people like cops who open carry, the optic is exposed to the weather and can collect rain, snow, or debris on the glass or between the glass and the emitter.
More and more departments are beginning to allow them though. Despite their drawbacks it’s like having a cheat code for aiming. With traditional iron sights your eyes can either focus on your target or on your front sight, but not both. With red dot sights, you put the window on the target and put the dot where you want the bullet to go. You get to see your sight and your target in focus at the same time, and it’s easier to keep both eyes open while you’re shooting. So as these optics become more proven and “battle tested,” more departments are starting to feel like the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Thanks, this is actually good info. Obligatory, glad this officer didn’t actually use his fancy red dot sight or he would’ve killed the unarmed, handcuffed, victim in the back of his car.
Well, regardless of how good your sights are, it’s really hard to shoot straight while you’re rolling around on the ground like a doofus.
You didn’t mention another drawback though: if you’re dumping your mag without even looking at what you’re shooting at because you have no idea what you’re shooting at, fancy sights just add extra unnecessary weight, slowing down how quickly you can wildly swing your aim around.
What in the world are you talking about? You have to focus on both to line up a shot. A trained soldier can line up a shot on a moving target at 300 feet and hit center mass in under 2.5 seconds.
I’m talking about how it’s literally impossible for your eyes to focus at more than one distance at a time. This has nothing to do with speed, training, or how good you imagine the marksmanship of your average soldier to be. It’s about how your eyes work.
Correctly lining up a shot with iron sights doesn’t mean everything in your sight picture is perfectly in focus. Unless you’re shooting a handgun with a very short sight radius you usually can’t even keep both the front and rear sights in focus at the same time, forget about doing it with both your sights and the target. Your eyes can’t focus at three distances at once. Or even two. You have to pick one.
Most people when they learn to shoot learn “front sight focus.” And front sight focus is exactly what it sounds like: the front sight post is what you focus on. You line your sights up with each other (equal height/equal light), and line that up with your target, with your focus on your front sight. With this sight picture your target will be blurry and your rear sights will be blurry, but you can still see the mass of your target well enough, and your rear sights well enough to keep everything lined up.
There’s also “target focus,” which is basically the same except the target is in focus and both your sights are blurry. The people who prefer target focus tend to be more experienced shooters who have already developed good enough muscle memory, and are comfortable enough with their weapon, that they don’t need to spend much of their attention maintaining EH/EL.
You can shoot target focused, or you can shoot front sight focused, but you can’t do both. The appeal of red dot sights is that they kind of flatten all of that out. They make it easy to look at your target normally with both eyes open. You put the optic up in front of your dominant eye, and now there’s a dot in your regular field of vision showing you where the bullet will go. You don’t need to direct your focus to the dot, you don’t need to be tempted to close an eye for a clearer sight picture, you don’t need to line up a bunch of posts. The dot is just there. It really is like having a cheat code for aiming.
You sound like you know what you’re talking about, but I’ve been shooting my entire life, and I’ve never noticed that I’m focusing on the sites or the target separately, both seem to be in equal focus for me. Perhaps I’m switching back and forth rapidly, but if so, that is imperceptible.
I didn’t just imagine the accuracy and reaction times of the average soldier, that’s the requirement to qualify with a rifle. You have to hit a certain number of targets out of 40 targets, that pop up randomly over varying distances and then go back down when you either hit them, or too much time has lapsed. At 300’ the target is up for 2.5 seconds before it goes back down. The targets are up for shorter durations as they get closer to the marksman. Or at least that’s how it used to work when I was in the Army a couple decades ago.
Yeah but these are cops, not trained soldiers. Lower those standards!