Re: "They should really be licensed or banned"....."insanely dangerous"....seriously?
Really now....are they any more "insanely" dangerous than a shotgun....sharp knife....baseball bat....your car?
They are what they are....just things....that can hurt you or others if mishandled....
This kind of talk is similar to "the gun went off by itself" stuff.
Always remember and never forget...if you pull the trigger on a loaded Glock it will make a loud noise everytime. This does not mean that it is "insanely" dangerous.
Respectfully
Interesting that this should be your first post on CPF.
You make a comparison to a car or a gun, well OK in itself a laser is not lethal, however having your sight damaged by one of these will be permanent. If one is shone into your eyes while driving on a motorway then it could be lethal. You can break a leg, or be shot and it is possible to recover to a point you don't notice it (obviously some injuries are worse and we are not getting into that now). If your sight is damaged by a laser, it can mean partial blindness, losing your driving license and spending the rest of your life unable to see properly, every waking moment will be affected.
One of the reasons they are so dangerous is exactly that most people don't think they are and so don't treat them with respect. They are currently not controlled much by legislation and are silent and small.
If all these lasers were used like guns are used, in a strictly controlled way on designated ranges, supervised and with participants always wearing eye protection, then yes these would not be dangerous. However, guns are not always used on a range and are used by criminals along with all other sorts of offensive weapons. These hand held lasers are now getting to a level of power output that makes them dangerous to the unaware, and the victims of crime or negligence.
Just like gun, cars, baseball bats, knives etc the lasers themselves are not dangerous, it is the way they can be used intentionally or unintentionally and their inherent ability to easily cause permanent eye damage.....silently.
Lasers are not 'insanely dangerous', in fact, you are the only one to use this description. The high power lasers are very dangerous and need to be treated with respect and are getting so powerful they may need to be regulated by law (just as with anything these days with an over populated planet).
It is not the loud noise the Glock makes that is very very dangerous, it is the lump of lead flying at lethal velocity that is. Similarly, it is not the hand held laser that is dangerous, but the highly collimated beam of photons capable of burning through your retina before your blink reflex can protect you.
With proper education we can all be safer, but until we all reach a certain level of enlightenment the authorities often have to step in a legislate. Having been promoted from the 'curiosity' factor of the laser pointer to a device capable of burning, we need to think about how hazardous these really are.
My head is full of flu today so hopefully I have not rambled on incomprehensibly, excuse me if I have.
Also respectfully.