Morons with laser pointers - awesome takedown...

[ghosttrain]

No, your points were read loud and clear

Oh, so you disagree with every one of them for the reason that you believe that anyone must have read or heard about the incidences and should know lasers are dangerous to be pointed at low flying aircrafts if they have common sense, not that all of my points were about shining lasers at low flying aircraft, but anyway. I'll just have to disagree that that's common sense and everyone knows the history of others doing this.

As far as what you decide to do based on my initial reply to you -
Well, nothing was implied on my part, but have fun!

Maybe I will.

[djeric68]

I saw this on the local newspaper's website down here in New Orleans. Reading the comments to the article, most commented that the people were idiots and one person tried to explain that green pointers are dangerous but red are not.

So, I took the time to sign up to comment, explained why any color of sufficient power can cause crashes and/or eye damage and posted links to laserpointersafety.com

Shouldn't we try to educate the idiots about why what they are doing (or about to do) is both dangerous and illegal? I know not too many of the readers will read the comments or click the links, but, hey we got to try.


On another note,
I once worked with someone who bought a green pointer and immediately looked right into it and pressed the button. A college student! Stunned, I asked him if he would look into the barrel of a loaded gun. Turns out he had put a gun to his head a few years before, pulled the trigger to try and kill himself. Missed the most important brain parts and survived. Showed me the scars. TRUE STORY. Maybe we ARE doomed.

[logsquared]

Studies have shown that some viewers watch less than an ave. of 1.2 min of news per day. Studies have shown that less educated individuals see less news (tv, internet, paper) than more educated ones. Its easy to see how some people may have received no information on how dangerous a laser pointer can be. I think we (the gov, media, etc.) can do better on education.

I have seen a prominent local government official "playing" in a dangerous manner with a 1w arctic blaster or what ever they are called. He should have known better. But did he? I doubt it as there were local news around at this event.

[Stuka]

No kidding, Eric -

Based on what is seen/read in the media (and realizing much of that has to be taken with a grain of salt) -
Common sense & intelligent thinking does NOT appear to be the norm these days.

Sad...

[Stuka]

Studies have shown that some viewers watch less than an ave. of 1.2 min of news per day. Studies have shown that less educated individuals see less news (tv, internet, paper) than more educated ones. Its easy to see how some people may have received no information on how dangerous a laser pointer can be. I think we (the gov, media, etc.) can do better on education.

I have seen a prominent local government official "playing" in a dangerous manner with a 1w arctic blaster or what ever they are called. He should have known better. But did he? I doubt it as there were local news around at this event.

I whole-heartedly agree with everything you've said.
Unfortunately, it sometimes takes making examples of some of the offenders before the general public starts to get a clue.

From what I've read about the few that ARE prosecuted, most are still getting off relatively easy.

[Draco]

I can understand you guys being upset but we dont need draconian ((yeah yeah i know i am dragon, don't remind me of the meaning)) laws, they won't work, i would say more education in school on lasers but the two humans in the video probably slept though science class, the one guy should get prosecuted because he kept doing it
I think education without saying these are radiation emitters, (remember these people won't realize that all light is radiation) is a more effective way to treat this then stiffer penalties. and i do not support banning people for shining a laser into the air as long as they know there target, i.e i still use mine to point out star gazing targets to my friends, but when we just want to play around we terminate on trees, i taught my non technical friends how to use these. I use a tactical flash light as an example of how bright these are, one flash to the face with the flash light and they get the point that these can be harmful if you are careless.
education education education, not jail jail jail, yeah there are exceptions but very harsh being mandatory i would generally not support
on a side note I do find it funny that the guy in the video did not realize they leave a nice line back to you, one reason i would never use a laser pointer on something i would use for self defense as it betrays your location

[LapisLaser]

I just don't want this to bring about a full fledged ban on laser projectors. This is my livelihood.. And how was it that there were 20 incidents across the country?? Did they orchestrate this somehow? I don't get it. Stupid people... They ruin everything.

[Draco]

I know, the pot with out the lasers so boring .....

[Laser Wizardry]

"opinion removed because everybody knows laser pointers are safe to look into while piloting an aircraft and it would be wrong to make the punishment severe enough to actually deter a dangerous crime"

[planters]

Stupid people... They ruin everything.

Of course they do. They elected (reelected)Obama and Merkel. They depend on the adults in society to be the back stop and to pull them out of the mud. We should show more judgment.