At their core, iron sights are just simple mechanical alignment tools to bring the bore of your gun in-line with your target. We’ve seen an endless variety of sights in the past — some with special coatings and components to catch the eye, with and without the ability to make adjustments, others which rely on scientific or quasi-scientific principles, or some combination thereof. Some are faster, others more precise, all with various levels of utility for a given shooting problem. Gizmos and features aside, they’re essentially the same when you strip them down to the soft center.
The rise of the miniature red-dot sight (MRDS) has displaced the use of iron sights as the primary sighting mechanism on many a pistol; though if you ask the internet, irons are still very much mandatory. As the oft misinterpreted and tired saying goes, “two is one and one is none.”
The fact of the matter is that iron sights are suboptimal backups because they’re only viable for an exceedingly rare
