Letter: Lasers too dangerous in minors’ hands

Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 | 7:45 a.m.

Bill Raszick's Oct. 22 letter, "Kids today need tougher discipline," makes some valid points about the general lack of discipline among our youth today and the lack of people willing or able to enforce discipline.

As an example of how this lack of discipline can yield destructive results, last weekend I was driving with my family when a group of joy-riding youths (who apparently had nothing better to do) in a luxury vehicle driving in the opposite direction tried to shine a green laser pointer into my eye.

As a physicist who regularly works with lasers, I immediately realized what was happening and swerved to avoid "eye-laser beam contact." This incident is reminiscent of efforts of criminals to shine lasers into the eyes of airplane pilots with the intended consequence of distracting and possibly disabling/blinding the pilots to cause a crash.

Lasers, invented by physicists, are used everywhere in our society by doctors, engineers, machinists, librarians, cashiers and many others. Though they are mostly low power , that power is concentrated into a very narrow beam (1 mm or less) that can cause permanent blindness if focused onto the optic nerve in one's eye.

The public should demand the highest possible punishment for and be highly vigilant against offenders who use lasers as weapons, because they are extremely dangerous. They should also be banned for sale to minors.

Michael Pravica, Henderson