This is a tactical light.

It is a small, powerful flashlight, typically carried by folks who use handguns. Most multi-day defensive handgun courses include a several-hour night session showing students have to used several different techniques of using a handheld tactical light such as this one for searching and assessing potential threats at nighttime, in darkened buildings, in the cave where you keep your gimp, etc.

They help you tell friend for foe, and can help you determine if there are things downrange that should not be shot towards.

They’ve long been standard in law enforcement, and so I’m purplexed as to why I’m reading about a shooting of a family member by an off-duty law enforcement agency employees twice in one week.

The first happened in North Las Vegas when a Metro police officer and her husband lit up a family member who came home at an unexpected time, without first verifying their target.

Now a woman in the St. Cloud, FL police department has shot and killed her adult daughter in much the same way.

Detectives have started their investigation into the events, which unfolded at 11:51 p.m. on Tuesday when the woman was asleep in her bed and thought she heard an intruder enter the house, according to St. Cloud police.

She told police she heard the person quickly approaching her, so she fired a single shot. Police would not say where the daughter was shot.

She then discovered the person was her daughter, according to police.

Emergency medical crews took the daughter to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries.

Police said the woman was also taken to the hospital for treatment.

Detectives are still investigating, but said the woman’s story matches all evidence.

“At this time, the incident appears to be an accidental shooting,” police said in a news release.

Like the Las Vegas disaster, the media and police are calling this an “accidental shooting” when it clearly was not.

Both of these instances were intentional, negligent shootings of unidentified targets by members of law enforcement organizations who should have had the basic training and the common sense to know that they should not be firing on unidentified threats.

One of my instructors told me something that has long stuck with me.

He rhetorically asked the class, “what percentage of shots strike a target?”

As we attempted to think of a response, he quickly answered his own question.

“100% of bullets strike a target. Whether they hit someone that deserves to be shot or something else is up to you.”

Be better than these now very remorseful public servants, folks.

Instead of buying another new gun or gadget, invest in your future and the future of your family by taking a good defensive firearms course from a reputable instructor.

You won’t be sorry that you did.