Defending against Lasers

Brief periods of exposure wont hurt your eye. For example, lets say the laser pointer slips and it shines in your eye...the first thing you are going to do is look away, close your eyes or put your hands over your eyes. Total exposure time would be less then a second. A laser pointer wont do damage with that brief exposure time. The problem is that certain individuals, like children and foolish adults, who will challenge themselves to stare at the laser pointer for over 5 seconds. I read somewhere that some guy chose to stare at the laser for 30 seconds.

So the Home Depot laser pointers wont harm the normal person's eyes because the normal person will take action quickly and shield themselves. Total exposure time would be very minimal.
 
I know of at least one nuke missle base that scrambled everybody with a gun when one of the guard towers was lasered.
 
Brief periods of exposure wont hurt your eye.
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Oh, yes it will. I've read many accounts of people doing permenant damage to their eyes from laser pointers. FWIW, Some laser pointers are as powerful as 300mw and higher. But, even those 5mw lasers can do damage to your eyes. Perhaps a quick glance at a 5mw or less laser might not always do permenant damage - maybe that's what you are talking about.
 
It's also illegal to shoot a laser pointer at an aircraft. Especially Military aircraft. When you're out flying around at night with your NVG's on, it's a real bummer to hear both of your pilots say they can't see because someone on the ground is shooting a red laser pointer at you.
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Reminded me of a story: We had one of our USAF AC-130U Gunships about a year ago got lit up one night. Apparently they were on a training mission just near a range we have here in FL. Apparently someone from a local neighborhood thought it'd be funny to aim their laser pointer at one of the Gunships (really BAD idea).....the aircrew decided to get a fix on where the light was coming from and call in the GPS coordinates to the local "authorities". Sheriffs deputies show up around 20 minutes later and find some stupid teenage kids that had no clue who they were messing with. Supposedly when the kids found out they coulda ended up with a 105mm Howitzer up their ass, it scared the sh!t out of 'em.....needless to say it the most memorable sortie debrief I've ever heard in my life.
 
I've always wondered whether a powerful laser pointer can be used to disable a survaliance camera?
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Temporarily disable, yes. The laser will overload the sensor and cause a whiteout as the camera tries to compensate.

Permanently disable, not really. not with today's cameras. If you had enough wattage you probably could, but most everything nowadays has a fast acting auto-iris lens and the sensors themselves are quite durable. I've had cameras, without the lens assembly, powered up in direct sunlight and the sensor was undamaged.

If you know the camera is monitored in some way it's a REALLY bad idea. When you have 32 cameras at your desk it's really easy to miss something. Having a camera suddenly whiteout like a nuke has gone off is going to attract attention.

Even hitting the camera with a laser is problematic because you have to hit the lens itself and then keep it there. (Can you hold a laser beam on a 1/2" target at 50 yards?) Just shooting the camera with a 22 would be more stealthy and reliable. You can obscure your face at night by making an "IR LED Hat". That works good too.
 
I went outside with my new toy and was able to illuminate a no parking sign which was probably a quarter mile away. Then when it illuminated it looked like it was a construction warning light...very bright and obvious. These laser pointers have some power.
 
I live in a middle to upper class area, and one night I noticed a red dot flashing on my chest. For a minute, I got a little paranoid and then saw it was coming from two pre-teen girls who were just having fun.
I think it's a dumb idea.
 
The TSA seemed to think my green laser was going to shoot down an airplane or burn through the cockpit door or vaporize a flight attendant.

I disappointed them by mailing it back to my home and not handing it over.
 
Three cases in Ohio recently spring to mind: Two idiots in a mullet-era Camaro lasing a police helicopter through their sunroof...both arrested.
One idiot lasing a helicopter from his balcony with a green laser mounted on his (non-present) roommates Steyr AUG...idiot arrested, roommate loses a $1,500 rifle due to idiot.
One idiot green lasing a medical helicopter as it passed over-head...he didn't notice the police helicopter following behind it, they gave him a little taste of his own medicine with their spotlight at low level along with hovering over his car at low level until the ground units arrived...one idiot arrested, one idiots car pretty well sand-blasted.
 
It's dark-thirty, you are minding your own business, suddenly a red dot appears on you, and you see a shadowy figure pointing something at you that projects that red dot. No matter what you do, you are probably wrong.

If it is a bad guy and you hesitate, you are likely dead. If it's a kid playing a game and you shoot, you will probably end up in jail. Now that kid knows exactly what that red dot represents; they have all seen laser sights used on TV and in the movies. The fun of the game is scaring the heck out of people, and it works because many people immediately think they are now a target. If the results are not pleasant, that kid really has no one to blame other than himself. The courts, however, will probably still fry you.

Once again, life isn't fair.
 
I've been "lased" by a construction level and even though it was a very short exposure I can attest that it hurt for a while. I hope the damage was temporary. I imagine most laws against pointing a laser at someone are meant to protect vision rather than teh assumption a firearm is being directed toward you.

I don't spend a lot of time looking at my chest and none at my back do I doubt I'd even know someone used a laser pointer on my unless someone else brought it to my attention.
 
One of the things I have adopted for my HD is military grade green lasers on several firearms.

I found the check points were using these quite successfully in Iraq for vehicles that were not slowing coming up to check points. The green laser resulted in the loss of vision for 10 to 20 minutes, with no permanent damage. It also give you some vision in a very dark room

In my HD, I would rather temporarily blind a person, zip tie them, and call 911, than work for a week trying to get blood stains out of my while carpets.
 
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