New Zealand Laser Law Change - DUE March 1st 2014

[RYDorDIE278]

Hello there fellow LPM Members,
New Zealand has been Reviewing Laser laws for Over a year now, Currently There are absolutely no laws that are Laser specific around possession, import, sale etc

But it seems that a few incidents over the last year or two have shone some unwanted light back at us New Zealanders who Have a passion for Laser pointers along with the few idiots that abuse them,

On March 1st 2014 it will be illegal to Import a laser with greater output than 1mW and as i understand the sale/supply of lasers greater than 1mW will also be prohibited,
there are exceptions with regards to Astronomers, NZ citizens who write buttered up letters to the MINISTRY OF HEALTH, Military and some other authorised citizens.
And just to top it off we have A member of parliament who is trying to Pass another law to make it illegal to carry a Laser Pointer greater than 1mW in a "Public place"
I think its soooo hard to even TRY to get a laser pointer less than 1mW, its hard enough to get a laser pointer putting out less than 5mW these days with all the overspec,

We all know we can still do home builds and take "other" measures to obtain a Laser Pointer that would be over 1mW, but that is not the point, the only point is disapPOINT!
Im just so disappointed that the minority has f***ed it up for the Majority:cryyy:

Im Glad I Got my Copper DominatoR from Blord on Xmas Eve 2013

But anyway I Just thought I would Share this Information with LPF so the Builders, Buyers and anybody else on here is aware of the change so
that our Hard earned money and time spend on building lasers is not wasted while New Zealand Customs get brownie points.


I Have not yet studied this new law with great depth but anyway here is a LINK to the High-power laser pointers | Ministry of Health NZ Page

I hope this thread will encourage NZ LPF members to buy some awsum builds bowdown: Copper DominatoR :bowdown: etc) while its still easy,
Times Runnin Out

 

[NKO29]

Yeah lol, getting a laser <1mW is nearly impossible lol. Governments need to realize they should punish the criminals very harshly instead of the rest of us!

 

[crazyspaz]

So basically...you can carry around a HeNe, and that's it :thinking:
It's always unfortunate, because it takes only a few morons to ruin it for a whole country. I hope the U.S. doesn't pass any stupid import laws like that...

 

[NightExplorer96]

So basically...you can carry around a HeNe, and that's it :thinking:
It's always unfortunate, because it takes only a few morons to ruin it for a whole country. I hope the U.S. doesn't pass any stupid import laws like that...

Personally, I felt this was only a matter of time until N.Z got laser laws.

Nevertheless, them being so close to Australia(don't know if it has any effects) they most likely were going to limit them to 1mW or less(same as in Europe).

But as has been said by crazy, 1mW won't get you much

 

[Operator]

How do they enforce this law though?!? Do the police also have to start carrying LPM's in their cars?!?

 

[NKO29]

if a laser runs off more than a watch battery then they will confiscate it. ALL ebay pens are illegal and customs seize MANY of them in the mail coming from china.

 

[Jmillerdoc]

It's just another piece of evidence the remaining "free" societies on this planet are being destroyed by goverment's insatiable appetite to create more laws and step over the boudaries the free citizens created them for. As if laws ever truly curbed the unwanted behaviors of the few that break them, our elected officials must continue to justify their existence by repeating the same stupid mistake of creating more laws to change the heart of man. Doesn't work, never did. I bet the average reader here at LPM doesn't commit murder because it's against the law....they don't commit murder because they have a sense of respect for life and some good old common sense. NZ new laser laws will not curtail the misuse of lasers by stupid lawbreakers in NZ, it will just curb the proper use of lasers by law abiding New Zealanders. Sanity has left the building folks....

I'm just waitng for some important person's kid, wife, or significant other's mothers brothers sister to burn their eyeball off with a laser so we can get some public outrage going here in the USA. You know, the kind of outrage that will generate us some more of these wonderful laws that will save us from ourselves. Gads!

I am beginning to believe anarchy might have some real solutions these days.....think about it for a minute, no politicians....3/4ths of the battle is won right there!

 

[cantthinkofone]

ANARCHY FTW! im sorry thats just the metallica in me peeking out. im sorry for your loss. but i still dont see how this will be enforced. "Excuse me but ehm is that laser more then 1mW" "why no officer" "good day". or something like that.

 

[OrionBLF]

Now wonder. In fact, several laser incidents were documented in NZ in 2012 : HERE. This following Dec news last month in 2013 is believed to be about the latest NZ laser incident - of all things, it had to be 44 yo man targeting a police chopper :yabbem:: HERE

Man arrested after police helicopter 'laser painted'11:40 AM Monday Dec 2, 2013

A 44-year-old man has been arrested after a police helicopter was "laser painted" on Sunday morning. A police spokeswoman said just before 1am staff were advised by Eagle helicopter that they had been laser painted by a blue laser from the Karangahape Rd area. "Inquiries on the ground led to the arrest of a 44-year-old man." A man was to appear in Auckland District Court today charged with interfering with the helicopter with reckless disregard for the safety of its occupants.

 

[RYDorDIE278]

How do they enforce this law though?!? Do the police also have to start carrying LPM's in their cars?!?

I have no idea how the police are going to enforce this law they wont have LPM, Guilty Until Proven Innocent will be my guess,
Ive got a feeling from the 1st day of the law onwards the police will be ready to find any laser usage then literaly tackle and or wrestle
to Arrest people for even using a laser pointer in a safe manner, just so they look like they are enforcing this new law,
So when they get to the end of the year and look at the new law they can say Customs seized XXXX "high power laser pointers"
police arrested/charged XXXX people for laser pointer Offences, then they think this great law has saved the country etc... or something along those lines, all just statistic based Sh*t


I think they are trying to copycat Australias laser laws too as these seem to be of the Harshest, MINISTRY OF HEALTH probably just done a COPY/PASTE and taaaDaaa you've got new regulations New Zealand

 

[RYDorDIE278]

As I Understand the law will CURRENTLY only be covering Importing and Local sale of lasers more than 1mW so we wont be able to buy complete builds from LPF or other lasers from Ebay or other sources,
also NZ local sites like Trademe or any other laser sources will not be able to sell lasers without an authorised seller selling them and an authorised buyer buying them,

e.g So an Eight year old School boy can still walk around with my 3w+ copper DominatoR legally(using it safely) as long as he found it on the side of the road and didn't buy it from me or swap his lunch for it etc,
This Law should make NZ safe as now, errrrr WRONG,

ever since I read all this new law stuff(3 days ago) my new year went from a Happy new Year to one of the sadest starts to a year I have had in a while I keep thinking bout it during the days:cryyy: sori guys I forgot Im on LPF here im not at a counselling session
Haha

 

[Operator]

In the long run I think the importation will be curbed, but overall use for what's already I'm country will stay relatively the same. And eventually as the supply dries the law only then will have teeth..

 

[Jmillerdoc]

What about Smaug's breath? Anyone shouting about that these days? Seems a lot more dangerous than 5mw of laser light to me.....you'd think with dragons like that down there politicians would have more serious things to worry about than just low powered collimated photons.

Yeah, I know there not real. Neither are the effects of laws like this. Reminds me of gun control laws. When you outlaw gun ownership then the only ones owning guns will be outlaws. You'd think in today's culture, where it is believed science and technology are the pinnacle of mans achievement, somehow we might actually apply a little science to the formulation of laws like this. Unfortunately it is necessary to have laws at all, but outlawing a device is simply silly. I can't cite any examples of a scientific inquiry done on lasers and criminal behaivor but there are many similar ones done on things like firearms. Time and again it is shown that restricting access to a dangerous device (such as a gun) doesn't curtail the unwanted behaivor it was intended to prevent. Harvard Study: No Correlation Between Gun Control and Less Violent Crime

The better and more sane approach is to outlaw unwanted behaviors. Although even this fails to be a perfect approach, it is more effective than banning devices in preventing unwanted behaviors. Make the penalty exceedingly severe and it's administration swift and then you might just prevent a pilot from crashing a plane due to a punk painting it as it approaches a runway. Oh, by the way, don't no of a recorded accident like this ever occurring anyways, but that's besides the point.

 

[RYDorDIE278]

Yup this Law has really fu**ed me off guys and its not even in yet

In the next couple of days im gonna order couple hundred bucks worth of different 532nm cheap lasers from Ebay, just because I feel the need, gota stock up a lil and they will be like Limited Edition in a couple months,
can anyone recommend any from ebay that have a good power output?

 

[Jmillerdoc]

eBay cheap 532 lasers are a real crap shoot. I bought a couple modules off a china seller once that were stated to do 50mw. I got lucky that time and they metered in between 80-100mw with little IR. Thinking I hit a home run with this seller I bought 5-6 more and all of them were underspec with high IR. Same seller, one month later. You looking for a full laser or just the brass driver/laser modules to build your own? There is one seller described as a good source for 20-100mw ranged modules I've read about somewhere Here at LPM. I will try to find the review and link it to you if that's what your after. Since I don't really mess with those much anymore I gave all (save the 100mw) of them away to some highschool kids down the street. I may still have one or two lying around somewhere that, if I can find them or they even exist anymore, I will gladly give to you. I know I gave the higher powered ones away but there still may be one or two in the 20-50mw range somewhere in the house.

Let me know....

 

[Operator]

Yup this Law has really fu**ed me off guys and its not even in yet

In the next couple of days im gonna order couple hundred bucks worth of different 532nm cheap lasers from Ebay, just because I feel the need, gota stock up a lil and they will be like Limited Edition in a couple months,
can anyone recommend any from ebay that have a good power output?

I just saw that lucklaser has a min buy of 10 greens at $9.99 each. Haven't ordered from them before so I can't really vouch for them, but I do think they sponsor the site.