Weapon-Mounted Lights and Concealed Carry: From Impractical to Inevitable

Weapon-mounted lights (WMLs) have been a staple of law enforcement pistols for decades. That makes sense. Patrol officers and tactical teams operate in low-light environments regularly, often with a known threat and a legal mandate to search, clear, and identify. A WML fits naturally into that mission set.

For everyday concealed carriers, though, weapon-mounted lights have historically been far less common.

Why Concealed Carriers Avoided WMLs for So Long

For years, the biggest problem with WMLs wasn’t philosophy. It was physics.

Early weapon-mounted lights were big, heavy, and bulky. They extended well past the muzzle, added width to the gun, and significantly increased overall weight. That might not matter on a duty belt, but it absolutely matters when you’re trying to conceal a handgun under a T-shirt for 10–12 hours a day.

More size means:

• More pressure points
• More printing
• Less comfort
• More compromises in holster choice

For concealed carriers, those tradeoffs often outweighed the perceived benefits. As a result, most armed citizens avoided weapon mounted lights on their carry guns.

The Inflection Point: When Lights Started Getting Smaller

That calculus began to change when manufacturers started taking compactness seriously.

I remember when Streamlight introduced the TLR-7 and TLR-8 series, it was a visual shock to a lot of people. For the first time, I could mount a light on a Glock 19 that:

• Didn’t extend past the muzzle
• Wasn’t wider than the slide
• Didn’t radically change the profile of the gun

It was the first time I looked at a WML and thought, “That might actually be carryable.”

Streamlight has continued to improve on the TLR-7. They rolled out the TLR-7A not too much later with updated, and in my opinion improved, switch controls.

The TLR-7X is the current iteration of this light and while all 3 of these have had the same footprint the 7X brought multi-fuel battery capability running on either standard CR123A batteries or a rechargeable SL-B9 battery pack.

More recently they also rolled out the TLR-7 HL-X which is a little longer but has a higher output both in lumens and candelas.

Micro-Compacts Pushed The Envelope Further

As micro-compact pistols exploded in popularity, Streamlight adapted right along with them.

The TLR-7 Sub series brought that same low-profile footprint to guns like the Sig P365, Springfield Hellcat, Glock 48, and HK CC9. These lights were no longer awkward add-ons—they were purpose-built for concealed carry pistols.

At this point, many of the traditional objections to WMLs largely disappeared:

• Weight became negligible
• Width stayed slim
• Comfort was barely affected
• Smaller popular carry guns found support

For many armed citizens, the downside of carrying a WML dropped close to zero.

The Last Remaining Problem: Holsters

Even as lights improved, one major obstacle remained—holster compatibility.

Historically, carrying a WML meant you had fewer holster options and needed to stick with mainstream guns like Glocks and M&Ps.

The problem wasn’t just variety. It was standardization. When every light had a different footprint, holster makers were constantly playing catch-up. Imagine if as a holster company you support appx 50 guns. Then people start asking for support for the Surefire X300. So you start working on molds for gun+X300. Are you going to support all 50 of the same guns especially considering that your molds are likely different for right vs left handed holsters. So that is 100 extra molds if you are going to support all the same guns.

Then of course people start asking for Streamlight TLR-1 support. Another 100 molds. You get the point. Its a nightmare.

But that’s changing.

A Market That’s Finally Converging

The overwhelming popularity of the TLR-7 family has created something the concealed carry world desperately needed: a common footprint.

That matters because holster manufacturers can now design intentionally instead of reactively.

Now fast forward to 2025 and both Holosun and SureFire introduced compact weapon-mounted lights intended to match the TLR-7 footprint. That’s a strong signal that the industry is converging—not just on smaller lights, but on shared dimensions that make long-term holster support realistic.

It isn't a slam dunk. There are still a lot of different popular lights on the market and holster companies still mostly need different molds for different guns+light, but it is indicative of where this might be going.

A Reality Check: WMLs vs. Handheld Lights

None of this changes an important truth: a handheld light is still the most useful light for most people.

You use a handheld light far more often in daily life, and it solves problems a WML never will. If you’re weighing priorities, a quality handheld light should still come first.

We’ve laid out those considerations in detail here: Handheld vs. Weapon-Mounted Lights.

That said, once the size, comfort, and holster downsides are minimized, there’s very little penalty to having a WML on your carry gun—if your carry setup supports it properly.

The Holster Solution: Where the Revere Fits In

This evolution in lights is exactly why the KSG Armory Revere Holster exists.

The Revere wasn’t built around yesterday’s bulky WMLs. It was designed specifically to support modern, compact weapon-mounted lights without adding unnecessary bulk or sacrificing concealability.

It solves the holster problem that held WML adoption back for years.

The Revere is:

• Fully ambidextrous
• Adjustable for ride height, cant, and retention
• Built around KSG’s proprietary ClipGrid system
• Enigma compatible
• Pistol optic compatible
• Suppressor-height sight compatible

It can be configured with:

• DCC Monoblock
• DCC Clips
• Soft Loops
• UltiClip UltiTuck
• DCC Clips or Soft Loops with struts

In short: it’s built for how people actually carry guns today—and how they’ll carry them tomorrow.

Ready to run a modern light-bearing setup without the bulk?
Check out the KSG Armory Revere Holster here.

The Bottom Line

Weapon-mounted lights didn’t suddenly become popular by accident. They became popular because the technology finally caught up with concealed carry realities.

Lights got smaller. Footprints standardized. Holsters evolved.

You don’t need a WML to be a responsible concealed carrier—but, carrying one no longer comes with meaningful downsides. And when you choose a holster designed for this new era of compact, light-bearing pistols, the whole system finally makes sense.