Lasers are already limited enough. The only reason lasers above 5mw have been banned is because higher power lasers were tested in the worst possible conditions (point blank range, focused to a point). Now, you may say that your job is to protect and keep the consumers safe, but the truth is, a certain amount of responsibiity should be bestowed to the consumer. You can, in a way, compare lasers to guns. Guns can hurt people, and so can lasers, however, guns are not banned, but lasers are (almost ALL of them). See, with a gun, comes responsibility that you will not harm others with it. It should be the same with lasers.
And here comes the class 1 laser bit. The truth is, if a parent buys their child a laser (at or above 5mw) , and that child decides to shine it in their own eye, or someone else's, that's the parent's fault. Children aren't responsible, and changing the limit for 1mw is ridiculous. This barely even makes it a cat toy. The range is miniscule, and you would be effectively taking all meaning out of having a pointer.
This goes for internal laser components as well. Having only class 1 laser diodes inside children's products will render most of them useless. This is a bad decisions at best.
The truth is, people will get ahold of lasers no matter what, because laser diodes are everywhere in electronics. Banning them isn't going to help, and will only cause problems.
Any rebuke you have for any of the comments in the entry will be answered with a answer that applies because this proposal is 101% ridiculous. Laser products are a part of our lives, and limiting them would be like banning the milkshake machine from McDonald's.
I urge everyone to go against this proposition, or it can damage a multitude of products, manufacturers, and even consumers like me.
+rep for giving it a go my friend
Could I make a few suggestions?
Lasers are already limited enough. The only reason lasers above 5mw have been banned is because higher power lasers were tested in the worst possible conditions (point blank range, focused to a point).
May I respectfully suggest further restrictions on laser may well be counter productive as all though the testing is empirically correct it does neglect to take into account a few unstated variables in nominal applications of lasers?
Guns can hurt people, and so can lasers, however, guns are not banned, but lasers are (almost ALL of them).
(ummm never compare something that is banned to something that isn't, point scoring political people will simply try to ban the thing that isn't (such as the guns)) + if the political representative is already an anti gun guy then you just lost their support.
The truth is, if a parent buys their child a laser (at or above 5mw) , and that child decides to shine it in their own eye, or someone else's, that's the parent's fault. Children aren't responsible,
nononono "children aren't responsible" is a great way to get age restrictions as well as power restrictions implemented. It would be better to address the problem as such:
While we understand that in the wrong circumstances lasers can fall in to the hands of less responsible persons we believe that education is the way forward to ensure the correct use rather than an outright ban.
The range is miniscule, and you would be effectively taking all meaning out of having a pointer.
Simply countered by asking what you need an uber laser for? "pointer" by their very description is for displaying or locating items at reasonably short distances. It could be used to attack any pointer with a less visible wavelength or invisible wavelength.
This goes for internal laser components as well. Having only class 1 laser diodes inside children's products will render most of them useless. This is a bad decisions at best.
"May I direct you to research that shows commercial items such as DVD players that are in use by younger members of our society are intriniscly safe if not tampered with" (insert links to numerous daily use items that use lasers)
The truth is, people will get ahold of lasers no matter what, because laser diodes are everywhere in electronics. Banning them isn't going to help, and will only cause problems.
Oh dear, political functionaries love power, no matter how much they have they will always desire more. Telling them "F*** you we will get them anyways" really isn't a good move.
Any rebuke you have for any of the comments in the entry will be answered with a answer that applies because this proposal is 101% ridiculous.
Sadly comes across as "I'm right, your wrong and I'm not listening to your shit anymore"
and limiting them would be like banning the milkshake machine from McDonald's.
Ummm the people reading it may despise milkshake, they may believe milkshake is a health hazard they may also just say "Nobody has ever been blinded by a milkshake"
If I could suggest a few changes?
---------------------------------------
Dear Sirs,
Having read your recent proposals for the prohibition of some classes of laser I felt compelled to offer my humble opinion on why this may be counter productive.
On a daily basis all of us will use lasers of some kind, a number of these will be above the empirical danger level of 5mW however I would like to draw your attention to the fact that many of the items that use such lasers are intrinsically safe by nature of their manufacturing method and present no signifficant risk to the users.
While I fully accept and support our Government in protecting the people I believe the purpose may be better served by education rather than restriction of laser products. History has always demonstrated that an educated populace is better than a legislated populace in that it permits experiment and investigation to prosper. In this financially pressured time I believe that development of American made products will be restricted by implementing a ban so leaving us as a nation at a disadvantage compared to our over seas and far eastern business competitors.
If I may be of assistance in sharing my own experiences please feel free to contact me.
Name:
Address:
Email:
Phone:
---------------------------------
Give that a go brother
cheers
Dave
