Us laser laws

[Halemach1]

I really hope that I'm not asking questions that have been answered before. But here we go, first off my dad is the one that got me into lasers. He has owned a few higher end lasers and, just got a new one a few days ago (500mw green, that is what was advertised anyway). So I went over to take a look at it, amazing beam even out in the sun!!! But, after it got dark we were shining it up into the sky and the local police stop by and tell us "if we catch you doing that again we will take it from you" after a little searching I can not find anything wrong with using it for stargazing... Am I missing something and it's just police in a town of less than 5000 not knowing what the hell they are talking about, or were we really in the wrong and breaking the law?

Thanks, and again I hope I'm not beating a dead horse here.

 

[Halemach1]

Thank you for the reply, and I have read a couple of those. It almost seems the way That they word the rules/laws, that they are just set up to be unfair for the user. But, can be bent around to suit law enforcement. Seems kind of unfair...

 

[Nimoxp]

I have read all of the U.S. laws that have been posted and the law still seems lurkey at best. So I pulled something off that might have saved me from losing my laser.

I received a 1.1W Blue laser a few months ago. Sometimes I go to the park to shoot into the sky that is no where near airports, or a flight line. Tried to cover all my areas. Still I noticed a couple looking at us from a distance and I noticed one get on a cell phone. I just sensed trouble because of the look on their faces. Most people come up to me with questions and ask about it and say how awesome it is.

20 or so minutes later a cop pulled up slowly and just stood looking to see what I was doing and seemed to be enjoying the view. He then spoke into his radio for a few minutes and came to talk to me and my buddy.

He said that's a very nice laser, and asked me how powerful it was. I said it was a 5Mw new Blue laser and showed it to him.(You see beforehand, I switched stickers from a 5Mw laser and put it on this blue one.) I explained that it was a new type of laser that shined blue and that's why it was so bright.

The cop knew nothing about lasers and had never seen a blue one before. I'm pretty sure he had no clue what a Mw was (Hell most people don't) and the cop was a decent enough guy. If I kept that 1W sticker on there, I really have no idea what would have occured.

So I'm not telling people to do that, but it just might have saved me from losing my laser or getting a fine (cause I'm guessing he used that radio to get some info on lasers before he came up to me), even with all these laws, they are still not clear.