I agree that pointing a laser at somebody ticks them off, and if the "target" has a gun (or is operating dangerous equipment, etc.), worse can happen... I don't do it and would tell my kids the same thing. People were painting folks and pissing them off with lasers before one was ever made small enough and attached to a gun.
Assault rifles, or scary guns, are illegal to purchase in California.
Surefire catalog is full of flashlight mounted on guns too. I am waiting for gun mounted / scary flashlights to be controlled/illegal too.
I don't expect to ever have complete agreement on anything... But even as Sasha said:
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...there are alot of weapon mounted laser scopes running around out there. Thankfully,
most of them are used by specialized law enforcement officers... but you have to figure that if the good guys have them, the bad guys do too
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was my point--Lasers are not very often mounted on civilian or cop's guns. I looked through google and could find only a couple of articles that even referenced a laser mounted on a gun used in a crime (one I posted on an earlier thread where the bad guy was actually shooting people--not just painting them). The only other mention I could find was the DC snipers, at some point in their life, apparently had a laser on a rifle (the article was not clear). And a new one
police inspector accidentally shoots gun in Japanese police station during laser sight training.
Even one of the CPF vendor's (won't mention name--because it is not really relevant to suck them into this discussion) for a while had a
law enforcement only restriction on one of their weapon flashlight light mounts (because of unclear laws?).
For me, making laser mounted sights illegal (which is were we appear to be heading) is not going to affect me one way or the other. Yes, I have seen lasers and lasers mounted on guns in show rooms... just none out in the "wild".
I am not naive. I know that laser sights are out there in many different hands. It just seems that pretty much every mention here (and google searches) was the stupid use of a laser pointer--not the targeting of a weapon mounted laser (and the one I found, the gun was being shot at people--). Given that weapon mounted lasers are much more expensive and sold in far fewer locations than the cheap lasers at Pet Co., it would seem that virtually all laser paintings are not from weapon mounted lasers.
Just out of curiosity--do you guys believe that weapon mounted laser sights should be restricted to government / law enforcement only? They don't seem to have much use in the civilian market and, I guess, we could make everyone (including police officers and stupid people that aim guns with lasers at folks) safer.
In some states, we have already outlawed purchase of simple laser pointers by minors. Eliminating the mounting of lasers to weapons would seem to make everyone safer--since making them illegal will eliminate their use on weapons (yea, like I believe another law will make us safer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ). Then any laser seen out there will be harmless and if a gun w/ laser is found, it can be confiscated and the owner prosecuted.
As I said, it was not important for me as I don't ever plan on using a laser sight--I just use lasers around the house for remodeling. However, I do believe they have legitimate uses both on and off guns and I worry that if we don't defend the legitimate use of something it will eventually be controlled and/or banned.
I will try and stop beating the dead horse now... I am here to learn too.
Sincerely
-Bill
PS: I am thinking of moving to Reno / Carson Valley Nevada, or somewhere else. If nothing more than because they are turning California into a welfare/nanny state where government's biggest problem is how to squeeze more money from the few taxpayers that will be left here in a couple more years...
Take care, -Bill