someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

[treetrimmerguy1977]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

I did have a "security guard" at a convention try to "confiscate" my 5mW green back in 1999-2000 or so. Back then a 5mW green was a huge, huge deal and few people had seen them before.

Hey, this question has been kind of nagging at me for a while, but I'm not sure how to word it.

Does anyone have a rough timeline of how long powerful lasers have been on the market? I was trying to describe my arctic to my brother the other day, and I told him that lasers that were no where near this powerful were available to the general public just a few years ago. I told him it would have been thousands of dollars for one that was MUCH lower in mw not too long ago.

Maybe I should have started a separate thread on this...

 

[danefex]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

There's been a few recent incidents where people have had their lasers confiscated, so I thought I'd ask this:

If someone tries to take your laser, would you comply? If so, at what point would you hand it over?

That was extremely well worded & I think I would do the exact same thing as you've explained in your original post :beer:

 

[mod101]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

I have thought about this and I agree with many of the posts here I wouldnt hand it over to a security guard. Though definitely discuss before handing over any laser to police. I would want to know what law I was breaking and I would also try to accompany the laser to the police station.


This kind of goes with this discussion but what laws surround building some of the ~1watt 445 lasers with legally purchased components (in the US). All i have seen from the FDA is stuff about manufactured lasers for sale. Does a policeman have the right to take my laser if I was shining it up at the sky or at the ground avoiding all people planes vehicles and other similar things?

 

[LtKernelPanic]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

Nope. They're not getting my lasers without arresting me or presenting a warrant first but like daguin I don't use them in public either. Although I suppose pointing them into the air (after making sure there are no aircraft) could be considered "in public."

 

[umss]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

I've heard that policeman in England don't use guns because then the "criminals" would feel the need to carry one. Is this true?

The criminals already do, sometimes.

 

[AJ_Dual]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

I too would only surrender a laser to a police officer. Although I only tend to use them outside late at night/early morning when no one is looking, and in my own yard.

And they would get a cheap decoy green, or maybe my dead red dilda I'm too lazy to send back to O-Like FIRST, and I'd drop it on the ground as I tried to hand it over and be convincingly "$#!+ It broke!"

 

[ixfd64]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

I know that a lot of people have had their lasers taken by their school. I'm out of school (for now), so this doesn't concern me too much. However, I would be faced with a difficult decision if a teacher or school staff tried to take my laser.

On one hand, the consequences of refusing to hand something over to a teacher or principal would generally be far less severe than refusing to comply with a lawful order from a police officer (schools can call authorities if the student brings something illegal, but usually only in the case of drugs and weapons).

However, students can be expelled (in the worst case) for refusing to comply, and that can affect college applications (if the incident happened in high school), and in turn, future careers. One must weigh whether a $50 laser is worth all that.

The other "problem" is that I knew most of my teachers pretty well. Even if I don't get in trouble for refusing to give my laser to them, it's going to result in some friction with them. That's definitely not going to help if I want them to write a recommendation letter for me in the future, etc.

I guess the best thing to do is to call a family member and have them pick up the laser. That way, it's not on the school campus any more.

As for bowing down to someone because they have a gun, if you open carried cops would no longer have that power over you

Cops are pretty trigger-happy these days. A dumb one might think, "That guy is going to blind me and beat me up, I better shoot him!"

 

[borgqueenx]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

im glad cops are not trigger happy here. fire a gun and you got 5 days of paper work and if you hit someone with a bullet you usally wont get a bonus and most of the times get fired and send to jail.

 

[ElektroFreak]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

Anyone with a gun gets my laser

Of course, I don't use them in "public", but that would be my basic criteria

Peace,
dave

^I'm with this concept, with one small addition: Anyone trying to take my lasers without a gun *and a badge* might lose some teeth..

 

[Mohrenberg]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

There's been a few recent incidents where people have had their lasers confiscated, so I thought I'd ask this:

If someone tries to take your laser, would you comply? If so, at what point would you hand it over?
Only to a law enforcement officer. whether it be local state or federal doesn't matter. If they want it give it to them, and then contact their supervisor.
I always use lasers in a safe and responsible manner, so it's not too likely that someone would try to take my laser (someone did try once, though). That having been said, whether I would comply would depend on who the person is. If they are just a security guard, then I would not hand it over. Unless said guard is an off-duty police officer, they have no more legal powers than an ordinary citizen. For example, if I am at a venue and security says I am causing trouble, I would opt to leave. But if they try to take my laser by force, then I will respond with force.This would only reinforce their accusations that you were causing trouble. I would personally call the police if they tried to take it and press charges. Robbery is very serious.

With the police, it's different. Without a warrant, police can only seize items if they have probable cause or reasonable suspicion ("in plain view"). The problem is, what constitutes "probable cause" or "reasonable suspicion" is open to interpretation. If police try to take my laser, I would ask them to explicitly state that they have probable cause/reasonable suspicion before handing it over, otherwise they would be lying under oath. Of course if they threaten me with arrest, then I would hand it over (after making sure that they are actually police, of course), no questions asked. After all, I would not want to mess with someone who has a badge and a gun. (True, police cannot legally shoot unless they are in fear for their lives, but who knows if some dumb cop might mistake a laser for a "deadly weapon"?) Plus, going to jail, even for a single night, would probably be a lot more unpleasant than losing an expensive laser, not to mention that I'll probably lose it anyway.
These incidents shouldn't happen in the first place. It's people being irresponsible in the first place that attract the attention and causes this problem to happen. You don't need your 1W laser at a concert. This scenario should never happen anyways as you should just comply (within reason)

In any case, I would do at least the following three things:

1. Remove the safety key, if it has one
2. Tell them not to point it at other people (this probably won't be necessary if the laser uses a key)
Chances are if you got it taken away your in no position to offer safety advice
3. Ask to turn it over at the police station, if allowed (this makes it much harder for the officer to pocket it)
No way this is ever going to be allowed. Hand it over or get maced in the face. rightfully so too. I hate it when people try to argue with law enforcement. I say taze em already!

Anyways, if someone tries to take your laser, would you hand it over, and if so, when?

there....

 

[burner]

Re: someone tries to "confiscate" your laser - (when) would you hand it over?

I did have a "security guard" at a convention try to "confiscate" my 5mW green back in 1999-2000 or so. Back then a 5mW green was a huge, huge deal and few people had seen them before.

This was at a (cough) "after-hours abandoned warehouse district gathering", of the sort that was so popular in the late 90s.

at a RAVE ?? lol