I'm not an old-timer. OK, I am, sort of. I'm old enough that I learned to shoot with black iron sights, unadorned with white dots, lines or other gimmicks designed to draw the eyes into proper sight alignment. I thought the shooting industry had taken a major technological leap the first time I saw a red insert on a front sight coupled with a white line outlining the rear sight of my first Smith & Wesson Model 29. Those sights practically startled me under bright, sunny skies, which, incidentally, were exactly the conditions that rendered the need for a red front insert and white-outline rear sight unnecessary. I discovered, as I'm sure millions of other handgunners did, that under dim light conditions the red insert pretty much faded into black when dusk settled in.

Do night sights make a real difference in shooting performance? This Glock 17 is equipped with Meprolight sights.

When three-dot sights came along I felt that they were an improvement. Still, I did most of my competition shooting with a Colt's Gold Cup that sported plain black sights, and that's pretty much the way I liked all my sights: simple, easy and uniform.

Then one day I had my first encounter with tritium night sights mounted on a .40-caliber Glock. Tritium is an isotope of radioactive hydrogen, and it glows. After seeing those luminescent green dots in the darkness, I was determined that someday, given the opportunity and available funds, I'd have night sights put on my defensive pistols as well. Now, over 10 years later and being considerably better off financially, not one of my personal weapons as of yet wears night sights.

In the not-too-distant past, I attended an NRA-sponsored law enforcement instructor development course during which an evening was devoted to low-light shooting. I noticed that night sights were present in abundance on many of the handguns being carried by my younger contemporaries. My chosen weapon, a Springfield XD-9, sported steel sights with the venerable three-dot system--no high-tech "radioactive" sighting assistance for me. Having spent some years in proximity to things that make Geiger counters clatter, I saw no need to up my roentgen count just to score a few more hits on target when the lights were dim.

I stealthily checked most of the other targets that evening, and I was internally gloating about what that XD could do without any enhanced sighting equipment in the hands of someone who had aged somewhat like a fine whiskey. Why, some of those other lads weren't even shaving yet.

Later on, I overheard a number of students discussing the merits of night sights, and the general consensus was that they were a virtual necessity if one intended to survive any given eight-hour shift on the streets. I had to agree in part that night sights were certainly handy to have. After all, when one fellow student had his plastic front sight pop off his expensive import and fall to the gravel at his feet, the luminescent glow made finding the sight much easier in the darkness.

My wife often chides me--rightly so--that my military career would have advanced further had I learned early on to keep my mouth shut. But upon hearing some of the students making claims about night sights that I felt were exaggerated, I had to weigh in on the side of the "non-enhanced" sighting systems.