If you plan to remove that event listener later on, you would need to go full verbose. this._callback = this.handleMouseDown.bind(this); elm.addEventListen

If you plan to remove that event listener later on, you would need to go full verbose. this._callback = this.handleMouseDown.bind(this); elm.addEventListener('mousedown', this._callback); elm.removeEventListener('mousedown', this._callback); this._callback = null; Compared to: elm.addEventListener('mousedown', this); elm.removeEventListener('mousedown', this); @richthegeek I removed that event listener in my example to illustrate how easy it is, there was otherwise no good reason for it.