[Fat Charlie]

The initial part of this was headlight dimming etiquette, specifically when encountering security personnel: don't antagonize them. When entering military bases got mentioned, I listed lights as being equal to vehicle weapons as things you blatantly disable so to not make the gate guards even think you're behaving aggressively towards them. I put the humvee pic in because there are places where people are so casual about weapons that they have to be specifically told not to make guards worry about things. If we have to drag this into whether or not they are a good thing to have around, let's keep it about being considerate- if you're carrying, it's your job to be the polite one, it's your job to not escalate things. If an armed society is a polite society, it's the job of the armed people to be the most polite members.

But back to lights, they blind people. That's why shutting them off at security points is a good practice- why on earth would you want an armed guard to think you're trying to blind him? In regular driving you shouldn't have high beams on if there's anyone anywhere near you to the front. Obviously there will be roads or weather conditions when you still have to use them, but that's the exception and should be done only when you really have to.