Do you carry your laser as self defense at night?

LMAO laser dazzler equipped with a red dot site in case you cant tell where the green dot is on your target.

i cant see lasers being too useful in a self defense scenario for many reasons. one of which is the fact that the aggressor would have to be facing you and even if you do get a nice shot in the eye and hes temporarily blinded. if hes there to cause you harm he can still do so blind especially if he is armed.

Depending on the situation after you blind him and he tests positive for retinal damage he can easily sue you for misusing your laser. especially if you cant prove you were in a threatening situation.

Range is also an issue. sure it might be viable for maybe 6 ft +, if hes close up and getting closer you wont have much time to get him directly in the eye enough to blind him. TBH i think you'll only piss off the guy more than neutralize a threat.

Personally i prefer some form of close quarters combat ie, martial arts or yeah a gun for those of you who can obtain the permits to hold one. Pepper spray and even tasers have been known to fail at neutralizing a target when their drunk or intoxicated.

A laser is always your last line of defense. The only time you would use it is after receiving a gunshot wound. It's always illegal to use a laser for self-defense. The law will prosecute the "victim" who uses a laser to defend them self. So if you are trying to "survive" and it's all you've got then go ahead and use it. (Can't imagine what would go through an attackers mind though, if receiving a 1 watt 445nm to the eyes?)

ill make it a point to remember to reach into my pocket and pull out my laser to lase the guy in the eye after i take a bullet wound. ill also try to notify that im doing this out of self defense and not to piss him off more to get him to shoot me again.

You don't have to worry about pissing him off. He already was, so you might as well let him have his just reward. ;-) His aim might be a little off after your defensive strike. Just tell him to "look at the blue birdie", with your last bit of strength. As he keeps straining to see your position, somehow these black blobs start showing up where he thought you were. All fictitious of course, but a good reason to wear your laser eye protection.

I carry a 5mw red laser for self-defense...built into the recoil spring guide rod of a .40-caliber Glock. You can defend yourself much better with a laser and a gun than just a laser.

Firearm with laser, always trumps laser only. Unless you can carry a handheld laser that hasn't been invented yet. ;-)

JonWienke said:

I carry a 5mw red laser for self-defense...built into the recoil spring guide rod of a .40-caliber Glock. You can defend yourself much better with a laser and a gun than just a laser.

Click to expand...

I suppose that with one of these ones, you don't need a laser pointer, for scare your opponent .....

Pfeifer-Zeliska .600 Nitro Express Magnum, LOL !

millirad said:

Firearm with laser, always trumps laser only. Unless you can carry a handheld laser that hasn't been invented yet. ;-)

Click to expand...

Well, this one already exist (not exactly pocket-size, but still you can hold it with your hands, so it's someway "handheld" :crackup:

Honestly a small unfocused 445 or green would be somewhat effective if your attacker is coming at you from a distance. Take it out, flash them in the face quick and run like hell while they stumble around dazzled. It's unlikely to cause damage and how are they going to identify you anyway?

That's pretty much the only situation I'd recommend laser defense though. If your attacker isn't coming from a distance using a laser won't work that well.

Razako said:

Honestly a small unfocused 445 or green would be somewhat effective if your attacker is coming at you from a distance. Take it out, flash them in the face quick and run like hell while they stumble around dazzled. It's unlikely to cause damage and how are they going to identify you anyway?

That's pretty much the only situation I'd recommend laser defense though. If your attacker isn't coming from a distance using a laser won't work that well.

Click to expand...

Some of these portable lasers could easily double as a club...

Razako said:

Honestly a small unfocused 445 or green would be somewhat effective if your attacker is coming at you from a distance. Take it out, flash them in the face quick and run like hell while they stumble around dazzled. It's unlikely to cause damage and how are they going to identify you anyway?

That's pretty much the only situation I'd recommend laser defense though. If your attacker isn't coming from a distance using a laser won't work that well.

Click to expand...

Some people are a lot less sensitive to "dazzling" than others. I have one friend who is very sensitive to light-a 100mW 405nm laser dot will give him an instant headache, and the strobe on my fenix will knock him on his ass. I know a few people like this-but then there's the other end of the spectrum, who are hardly bothered by the strobe on my light. I would assume a laser wouldn't do much either.

JonWienke said:

I carry a 5mw red laser for self-defense...built into the recoil spring guide rod of a .40-caliber Glock. You can defend yourself much better with a laser and a gun than just a laser.

Click to expand...

Thats how its done right
LOL and you should put a red dot site on it to, in case you cant tell where the green dot is.. seems like the officers had that issue

yeah.. even slightly blind shooting at a stationary target (assuming your on the ground bleeding all over the place) is very easy at 1-3 meters away. Going back to the fact that your more likely to be sued after lasing a guy only brings motive to him to shoot you again. With no witnesses he could argue that you were lasing him prior to him shooting you, with you lasing him again after the shooting could be seen as retaliation justifying another kill shot.

ill be completely honest with you.. if i was being lased and i had a gun in my hand, ill totally shoot no questions asked.

Police use the 3D or 4D Mag lights cause they can be used as a baton or club. With that i would LOVE to see someone make a Conversion kit for one.

I make certain to carry one of these on me every night. just in case someone launches a shoulder mounted surface to air missile at me while I am jogging along.... Hey. I guess laser dazzlers aren't always tuned for human eyesight. though I suspect aiming a 10 watt multi-wavelength laser at the face of the person shooting the missile might be almost as effective as trying to blind the IR sensors on a missile....

Lased and Confused: Off-the-Shelf Infrared Lasers Could Ward Off Missile Attacks on Military Helicopters: Scientific American

In all seriousness, when out at night, a full grown alaskan malamute tends to keep people away better then any laser would.

Sometimes, but its illegal to wear laser stronger than 5 mW outside here in Sweden. When I worked as a security-guard, I use to wear an expander-batoon, teargas or a stun-gun. But now, sometimes I wear my green laser. The blue one is to clumsy, and takes time to start up.

I actually have a real story on this subject, as my friend Steve escaped from a couple of thugs one evening using his 75mw green laser. Apparently they saw him as an easy target, him being obviously gay, and very short in height. Anyways, when he was walking home from a club, he was approached, and one of them was weilding a knife. Lucky thing was he was about to start playing with his laser anyway, and he shined it directly into the eyes of the tallest guy, and then took off running.

Now this is just an example of using one to stun, rather than to bring down an opponent. From what he tells me, the guy started yelling the instant he hit him in the eye, so god knows whether he can see out of that eye anymore.

I was actually thinking of getting one of the 1W 445nm lasers for home protection as well. I mean, it's scary enough to have a red or green dot shined on you from an unknown direction, seeing as though you don't know if a gun is connected to it, but having a solid blue beam hit you from the darkness...that would have terrified me if I'd never seen one before. Sure, they can shoot in the direction of the beam, but if you're far enough away, and behind an obstruction, you could potentially do more harm than they can, as while they are trying to point in the direction of the blinding ray, you have had enough time to permanently damage his retinas!(-=

Sure, in close range confrontations, it's good to obey the gunner, but from a distance, it's up in the air..

@ZDO
Good story, I'm glad your friend was able to get away. However, I think that a 1W blue might be a little excessive as that would actually be a lot more likely to blind (rather than stun) anyone it hits, which is bad for you in court and bad for any passers-by that get hit.

Zat Dude Online said:

...edit...
he shined it directly into the eyes of the tallest guy, and then took off running.

Click to expand...

Criminal misdemeanor. :tsk:
Sure, it was (potentially) in self-defense, and probably saved him but it's still against the law.
Note: I would have done the exact same thing were I in his situation. :beer:

Zat Dude Online said:

...edit...
I was actually thinking of getting one of the 1W 445nm lasers for home protection as well.

Click to expand...

I agree with osgWill. 1 Watt is way too much power to shine in someones eyes. It's total overkill. Even if done in self defense, you could get a hefty lawsuit (for intentionally handicapping someone) filed against you and they would probably win and you may even face jailtime. A 50-100mW green is all you need for self defense. I would never point any of my 1W lasers at any person's eyes, for any reason. I know how fast 1Watt of laser light can do serious, permanent damage and I'm just not that cruel. :angel: