For the "gadget geeks" among us, I just found an article at Locked Back-dot-Com about a four-year study conducted by a gun training company called Sage Dynamics regarding practicality of use of red dot sights on handguns. I looked up the registry information on their two web sites to see if the former might be a shill for the latter but I couldn't tell either way.

Also, I can't tell how old this article is because the idiots didn't bother to date either the article or the linked study. The report itself states the 4-year study was begun in 2014, which would mean the study and the article both might be as much as two years old. Also, the data comes from testing under controlled conditions (laid out in detail in the complete report), not "real-world" shootings. And FWIW the overarching focus was on the efficacy of use of red dots for use by law enforcement officers.

I also should note the possibility of some confirmation bias on my part because owing to the many gifts of Father Time, I recently switched to a red dot on my EDC. But my academic interest in the topic predates that by more than a decade because I learned while I was working in Iraq that the army had concluded that since its 1991 adoption of the ACOG that the per-round hit probability for the grunts had doubled (x2). Which has YUGE implications to the outcome of any firefight and the odds of survival for any red dot equipped soldier. Not to mention the logistics system because it will (somewhat) decrease ammunition expenditure for any given firefight.

If this is of interest I would recommend you read at least the linked article (if not the 60+page report itself) but here's the upshot.

Total shots fired in the test was 553, 262 from red dot-sighted guns and 292 from iron sights. The use of red dot sights increased the per-round hit probability by 15% (also decreasing the per-round miss probability by 15%), increased the per-round probability of a hit to a critical area by 34%, also increasing the per-hit probability of a gsw to a critical area by 42%.

So based on their conclusions, the red dot sights increase the individual officer's odds of surviving the encounter, decrease the number of times a suspect might have to be shot to incapacitate him, and reduces risk to bystanders from out-and-out misses.

The study also addresses the potential for red dot sight failure. They conducted their own drop testing with the (admittedly limited) selection of red dots they used, detailing the ones that failed and suggesting how training could be adapted to increase the shooter's effectiveness with a failed red dot. Of the sights they tested, based on drop-test failures, they concluded that duty use should be limited to Trijicon RMR and Leupold Delta Point sights. And believe it or not, there also were 'mechanical' failures of batteries, too. Meaning it didn't run out of juice, it just broke. The only battery tested that didn't fail (apart from exhausting its charge) was the Duracell.

In all, they concluded that in light of the improvements to shooter shooter precision, the red dots were robust enough to be warranted for use on duty handguns. The linked article offers this three-point summary:

1. Quality modern red dots are durable
2. Handgun red dots allow the focus to remain on target
3. Handgun red dots improve accuracy

(he writes "accuracy" but he means "precision")