ATTENTION!! Everybody needs to read this and take action NOW(New Bill/USA)

[hakzaw1]

ATM we cannot even meet 1/2 the donation goal for LPF for the month that is about to end..

Having a group to rep us is a great idea--its just , I am afraid, a little too late. Once this bill gets passed as-is the battle to repeal it IMO wil be one that will not be won. Send out lots letters and emails. And lets do form some united front...but in that order.

We have nearly 16,000 registered members.

If only 10% send out( or ask fiends/family) 10 letters/emails each just maybe it will help. BUT time is quickly running out.

 

[joeyss]

Did anyone share this with PL? I'm sure some people over there would also be intrested in sending letters.

 

[Krogith]

ATM we cannot even meet 1/2 the donation goal for LPF for the month that is about to end..

Having a group to rep us is a great idea--its just , I am afraid, a little too late. Once this bill gets passed as-is the battle to repeal it IMO wil be one that will not be won. Send out lots letters and emails. And lets do form some united front...but in that order.

We have nearly 16,000 registered members.

If only 10% send out( or ask fiends/family) 10 letters/emails each just maybe it will help. BUT time is quickly running out.

I understand your point, but just saying oh well it's to late is going to be the death of our hobby.

Please I am willing to be a part of the work required to get it going

We should at least TRY to ban together and show there is a safe way to use the pointers and with out a group saying why its fine and safe we will not get heard.

We are stronger together, we need to at least try, if we try and fail at least we tried

 

[joeyss]

^ this. We need to band together and soon. All this bickering about it not going to work isn't going to help our cause.

 

[hakzaw1]

I put it up there the same day as here. And as they are all pretty much ILDA members they have known about this already. Very few PL members even own handhelds. But handhelds have caused all these problems. See post #2 to find where to write and copypasta a letter, but your own version also would be even more helpful.

Sad to say this but I have my doubts that very many LPFers will send out anything. I hope I am wrong. Most of us have more than one email addy. Send out emails from all of them. The aides who work for our elected officials just count them as either for or against new bills. The media rarely reports on anything except the negative about handhelds. If we cannot even make our friends and family understand why we 'do' lasers how can we make others take our side, especially if we do not even try. If we say we will not vote to re-elect them they will take notice.

 

[Krogith]

I put it up there the same day as here. And as they are all pretty much ILDA members they have known about this already. Very few PL members even own handhelds. But handhelds have caused all these problems. See post #2 to find where to write and copypasta a letter, but your own version also would be even more helpful.

Sad to say this but I have my doubts that very many LPFers will send out anything. I hope I am wrong. Most of us have more than one email addy. Send out emails from all of them. The aides who work for our elected officials just count them as either for or against new bills. The media rarely reports on anything except the negative about handhelds. If we cannot even make our friends and family understand why we 'do' lasers how can we make others take our side, especially if we do not even try. If we say we will not vote to re-elect them they will take notice.

And if a Organization that has members around the world "mostly in US" That all promote laser safety. Then tell them we wont vote for them and this or that law is to restrictive. I think we would have a bigger voice and more influence.

You know it would be really easy to make a Contract that we all sign that has rules and safety regulations. We could all print it out at home from on line and then have a group of professionals that can take lead. They keep a member list and E-mails of everyone, and then when we have something like this law come up you can mass e-mail everyone in the Group and we can all e-mail as part of a world wide group promoting laser safety.

That would get this done and help A TON>

I want to try why not try and group together, have some experience members with clean records write up and lead this group.

 

[anselm]

We have nearly 16,000 registered members.

Unfortunately 15.000 of them are either banned, long gone or inactive....
Just sayin.....

I'm in Europe, but if all you guys over the pond had trouble with your hobby,
this forum, my source of information, would suffer too, as a consequence.

I'll say it again, PM me some congresspeople's e-mail, and I'll copypaste them the content of the 1st post.

 

[mindwaave]

Sad to say this but I have my doubts that very many LPFers will send out anything. I hope I am wrong.

You're wrong hak (about me anyway) :yh:

Writing snail mail letters to Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill. I'm afraid that any emails I send will just get filtered or filed away, but should I try with email anyway?

 

[HaloBlu]

Snail mail may get better attention but don't discount email. Quick, free & nothing to lose.

Also Fax urgent letters since mail can have delays.
All 111th Congress Fax Numbers in one file: Excel or Ascii csv source

senator@begich.senate.gov Mark Begich (D) Alaska Senator
Senator_Mark_Udall@markudall.senate.gov Mark Udall (D) Colorado Senator
senator_bennet@bennet.senate.gov Michael Bennet (D) Colorado Senator
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov Richard Lugar (R) Indiana Senator
info@franken.senate.gov Al Franken (D) Minnesota Senator
bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov Jeff Bingaman (D) New Mexico Senator
kirsten_gillibrand@gillibrand.senate.gov Kirsten Gillibrand (D) New York Senator
senator@klobuchar.senate.gov Amy Klobuchar (D) Minnesota Senator
Senator_Hagan@hagan.senate.gov Kay Hagan (D) North Carolina Senator
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov Patrick Leahy (D) Vermont Senator

Only a few emails I found quickly. Of course if you mass email don't CC a single email.
Some Congressfolks use web forms as a quick contact method.

 

[hxdrummerxc]

Im so sick and tired of all of these bull**** new bills being proposed.
Like the "Internet blacklist" that was proposed recently.

This country makes me sick now....
"Land of the not-so-free"

 

[hakzaw1]

You're wrong hak (about me anyway) :yh:
Sometime I love being wrong!!! Good job writing BTW nowadays most of these guys in charge can get mail/messages via FaceBook, my space ,twitter ETC.
Writing snail mail letters to Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill. I'm afraid that any emails I send will just get filtered or filed away, but should I try with email anyway?

I know if I saw that somebody took the time to handwrite a letter (even just a few lines)and stamp an envelope that it would mean much more!!

Snail mail may get better attention but don't discount email. Quick, free & nothing to lose.
I like doing both!!
Also Fax urgent letters since mail can have delays.

THanks for ^^^ and the following.
All 111th Congress Fax Numbers in one file: Excel or Ascii csv source

senator@begich.senate.gov Mark Begich (D) Alaska Senator
Senator_Mark_Udall@markudall.senate.gov Mark Udall (D) Colorado Senator
senator_bennet@bennet.senate.gov Michael Bennet (D) Colorado Senator
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov Richard Lugar (R) Indiana Senator
info@franken.senate.gov Al Franken (D) Minnesota Senator
bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov Jeff Bingaman (D) New Mexico Senator
kirsten_gillibrand@gillibrand.senate.gov Kirsten Gillibrand (D) New York Senator
senator@klobuchar.senate.gov Amy Klobuchar (D) Minnesota Senator
Senator_Hagan@hagan.senate.gov Kay Hagan (D) North Carolina Senator
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov Patrick Leahy (D) Vermont Senator

Only a few emails I found quickly. Of course if you mass email don't CC a single email.
Some Congressfolks use web forms as a quick contact method.[/QUOTE***********

For the past week Im have been talking to strangers about thier opinions and knowledge of Hobby Laserists.

I found, for the most part they know nothing but the bad things they get from the media/newz.

Many are not fully aware how important lasers are in our lives. I read that the laser is now considered by many 'experts' to be a more significant invention that the light bulb. The list of uses is incredible and grows every day.

But sadly Joe Public knows only cat toys and the scanner down at the local market. And the bad stuff.

I have demonstrated a few of my handhelds to these strangers and answered thier questions. I felt it would be very conunterproductive to demo any popping ballons or burning matches/tape/bags etc. --( IMO) the less said about that aspect the better.

Most said that the assumed people had gotten blinded by lasers and that aircraft had experienced many cases where actual serious harm was done by lasers. We all know that this is not the case- but that means nothing. So that is what we up against when it comes to the general public.

Coconuts fall on the heads of those under the palm trees and cause both injuries and deaths. Maybe all those trees should be cut down.

When you do send a message be ready to give your name. I doubt they would pay much attention to anonimous ones.

hak

 

[hakzaw1]

I understand your point, but just saying oh well it's to late is going to be the death of our hobby.

Please I am willing to be a part of the work required to get it going

We should at least TRY to ban together and show there is a safe way to use the pointers and with out a group saying why its fine and safe we will not get heard.

We are stronger together, we need to at least try, if we try and fail at least we tried

Forming a new group is a great idea, but that will take time, I fear, we dont really have. I am all for it- add my name , but RIGHT NOW , IMHO we need emails and letters sent.

ALSO there is a group that is already formed - has a lot of great active members and and any one of them can speak up as a member/rep. of LaserPointerForums.


My group LoneStarLaserFans is another one. See the OP and post#2 for the names of Texas Reps and Senators.

or your state....


tick tock


tick tock




EDit--here is a site that you can respond on.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-386

take the survey.

BTW anybody read the bill besides me>????

I could not find any parts that looked like we should be freaking out unless they modify it later. Or there is more to read that I could not find.

and there IS a provision that allows signalling for help with a laser to be exempt from the law ..

it says IIRC 5 yrs and/or 5,000$ fine for intentionally aiming at aircraft-- that sounds good to me or not enough.

Im writing Pres Obama- he has to sign if it gets that far.

hak

 

[HaloBlu]

I believe the entire text is at govtrack.us
It is well intentioned but after reading the dissection & analysis at laserpointersafety.com I think its very badly written.
One part that particularly concerns me is pointing at the 'flight path' of an aircraft. I know they mean 'immediate flight path' but thats not what will be law if this is passed.
Some prosecutors don't care about the intent of a law, they will interpret it as broadly as they can.

Personally, the way this thing is written I just can't help but freak out.

 

[aryntha]

I'm writing to Udall as both a pilot and laser enthusiast, hopefully that'll help. I also am going to do snail mail as I do believe that emails are too easily filtered/forgotten.

 

[HaloBlu]

Thank you Aryntha!

LaserPointerSafety.com put the 'flight path' issue Much better then me.
# Clarify “flight path” so it is not illegal if the laser beam crosses a potential flight path with no active aircraft that could intercept the laser light within a time limit (30 seconds is suggested).

 

[aryntha]

Thank you Aryntha!

LaserPointerSafety.com put the 'flight path' issue Much better then me.
# Clarify “flight path” so it is not illegal if the laser beam crosses a potential flight path with no active aircraft that could intercept the laser light within a time limit (30 seconds is suggested).

Heh, without that clarification it seems that they're talking about everything Class Echo and above That's a problem. "Flight paths" are not immutable, and established flight lanes DO change.

(Don't worry, we get this crap on the aviation side too: Sometimes there is no way to even know if you're violating an Event TFR until you're over the event which may or may not be in session, which may or may not establish the TFR, and by the time you can tell, you have violated it. )

I'd say ILDA likely has more chance than anyone to change that verbiage though.