Shipping to America

there have been several *NEWS UPDATES*(or w/e) recently about online companies shipping laser pointers over 5mW into the United States. Well I was talking to my father about this, he works for Customs, he says that even though they passed the laws, the chances that they actually find your laser pointer and confiscate it is quite minimal. He says they have so much incoming stuff to check its only a small amount of things they need to confiscate and even then its less than that in the case of laser pointers. So now its up to the online company to ship it to the US and take the risk.

or just buy FDA approved lasers

I think maybe higher profile dealers like DX get pressured by the US govenment to either not ship to the US or to provide information about every sale of high powered laser to customers in the US.

A friend of mine who buy Cuban cigars online say that there was a dealer on Hong Kong which made the deal to supply all their US purchaser information to the office of foreign asset control who then fined every single one of those purchasers... Sometimes the fines were made 2-3 years after the purchase.

If this is the case then I would rather the seller refuse the sale instead of share the purchase information...

Well the companies that banned them won't ship because there scared by customs, but we still have sources...

yea, group buys FTW

One misconception to clear up here:

The OP says, and I've seen others say, that the current situation is a case of new laws being passed, as in the OP saying "even though they passed the laws".

THIS IS NOT A NEW LAW. The law being enforced here is over 30 years old, and the relevant parts have not changed in that time, since (I believe) 1976. The internet has made it easier to circumvent the law, and now the government is catching up in ways to enforce the law. It is nothing new, simply the government starting to crack down on enforcement and finding new ways to do it.

And notice chopper's post, an excellent example of what can happen. Remember that when you order a laser and have it shipped in, you are smuggling. This is a felony, punishable by prison and large fines if prosecutors saw fit to do so. They would probably just confiscate (that's all they ever seem to do with lasers), but fines for small things can and do happen, even if being caught isn't likely.