Well, I guess I will take an unpopular position here.
Outside of the movies and TV, I am not sure I have ever seen a laser mounted on a gun (I have not been to a gun range since they closed the San Francisco municipal range in Pacifica some 20 years ago). It is just a red (or green) light. There are already enough laws on the books about creating hazardous conditions that can get your butt fined or put in jail.
I believe I posted here earlier an article about the town that passed an anti-laser law about one year after a gunman that was SHOOTING AT COPS that made it something like a $500 fine to point a laser at somebody. Yep, that is going to scare some crook into taking the laser off of his hand gun during the middle of a gun fight--
I also have a problem that there are certain classes of people that where it is a felony to point a laser at them, whereas it is only a misdemeanor to point it at us "common" folks.
Look at the DC sniper and the Ohio (?) snipers... No lasers, just plain old iron sights and/or scopes have killed and injured a lot of people. And guess what, sights and scopes are the perfect passive sighting devices... No emissions to warn the target or to trace back for defense. The same reason our subs don't use sonar, except in extreme or non/hostile situations.
Possession of a laser is now on its way to being placed on the same footing as collapsible batons, knives, guns, spray-paint, concealed weapons, and eventually any weapons in California:
Alta Loma School District:
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Laser pointers - The passage of AB 221 and AB 293 in 1999 made it illegal to aim a laser pointer at another person, to sell a laser pointer to a minor, or for students to be in possession of laser pointers on school campuses. Use of the pointer in a threatening manner against another person is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail. The other listed offenses are designated as "infractions" and may result in fines and community service.
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This is just another erosion of our civil rights just because there are a few jerks out there that, our nanny states, have used as a basis to interfere with all of our rights.
Ever wonder why guns were still legal in California for the great unwashed masses to own and, for a quite a time, it was illegal for us to own mace? It was because of organizations like the NRA (disclosure, I have not been a member for 30 years) that fought to keep us from going down these slippery slopes.
In the end--it is just LIGHT--photons. It is the interpretation, mostly based on popular entertainment, that has seemed to associate every laser with a gun (or is it the whole movie/Star Trek death ray thing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ). There are situations where it is not a good thing to point it at something/someone, just as there are times when it is not good for me to turn on my high beam head lights on a car... Does that mean that high beams should be a class C felony if they accidentally shine for a moment on a police car or a bus? Should high beams be outlawed? Should minors be prohibited from driving a car that has high beams?
Another example of anti-gun hysteria. Just the photograph of a TV Camera Monitor with a center cross witness lines...
REUTERS 'SNIPER' SNAP OF KERRY RAISES EYEBROWS
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A photo moved on the REUTERS international wire of presidential candidate John Kerry appears to put the Democrat frontrunner in the bull's-eye of a sniper's aim!
The controversial snap from the British-based wire immediately raised alarm in newsrooms.
"At the very least, [the photo] is in extraordinarily bad taste at a time of so many terrorist threats," one top newspaper editor said from Washington. "In my mind this is just unconscionable... we would never publish anything like this."
An official from REUTERS claims the photo is actually candidate Kerry as seen through "a television camera."
The wire explains Kerry was being interviewed by a local television station in Madison, Wisconsin when photographer John Gress captured the image.
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I really worry that all of this is being used against law abiding citizens to continue trampling our rights--It gives government more power, and does zero to actually make any of us safer.
-Bill