Joe,, ignore those who may disparage your use of a laser.
A lot of people who may not have any real experience with an honest, serious life threatening event, spout stuff of which they know very little & only what they hear from any "expert" they admire.
I see a LOT of shooters in USPSA. And like Ben said above,, Steel Challenge matches are the same. A LOT of shooters use a red dot. And many of those same shooters are poor iron sight shooters. I witnessed a discussion at the Area 6 USPSA match this past August between a few shooters in my RO squad. All 3 were dot shooters. Listening to them and how they do & such,, I quietly felt bad for them. They had no real clue about open sights & longer range shooting. They opened a can of worms, when they asked me why I shot a revolver. I calmly said; "I'm a real man, I shoot a revolver & open sights!"
I got the clueless stare.
When I started relating how I hunt with a handgun, and make shots with open sights out to 100 yds,, I saw them react with disbelief. They thought I was lying. When I showed them pictures of deer taken with my Maxi, or the elk with my Contender & a groundhog with a .45 Colt, or the deer with the Colt,, they didn't know what to say.
But that's not the discussion here. Well, maybe a small part of it.
Lasers have their place & can be good or bad. Just like any other item. You just have to figure out YOUR needs & forget what others may think.
Many may feel that a laser will give a bad guy a target to shoot back at. Possibly true,, but only if the aggressor is armed with a handgun. You can say the exact same thing about a flashlight on a handgun.
They are electronic. And we all know electronics can fail. Same goes for red dots, flashlights, etc.
One thing a red dot can't do,, is allow you to put your muzzle in the precise direction of a target WITHOUT it being aligned with your eyes. Think; Waist level, arm forward, around the edge of cover! You see the laser dot, on the target, and if under a life threat, you have cover & they may not have it.
Now throw in real life events.
You are under attack. You are on the ground fighting an assailant, your dominant hand is injured or unusable for whatever reason. Your off hand has your gun, at an odd angle or position. But you can see the laser dot on your attacker. You now have the advantage.
I'll be the first person to say that nothing is better than regular, serious practice with just the bare bones basics of open sights, off hand, and from various positions. That you can trust.
But if you have the ability to add stuff to your firearm for self defense and it works,, it can be the item that allows you to be quicker & better than your attacker.
I have a few lasers, flashlights, red dots, scopes, and find uses for all of them.
Ignore the nay-sayers.
