I was able to create a work-around to solve it.
I attached a light component to the BP of the player’s character (BP_FirstPerson) and assigned it to the same socket as the weapon (lantern) when held in hand, then turned off the visibility.
Afterwards, I assigned the weapon a specific weapon type (lantern) and set up my character’s BP to turn the visibility back on if that weapon type is equipped.
So basically, the light source is coming from the BP_FirstPerson’s socket, and becomes visible when the actual lantern is equipped. The light source is NOT coming from the skeletal mesh.
