[Chu Gary]

These lasers should be outlawed right away and the maroons highlighting the cockpits should be put on trial with lots of publicity.

[rdl6989]

USA Today reports that the FBI believes the incidents are caused by "michief makers" and not terrorists.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-02-lasers-fbi_x.htm?csp=34

[babygene]

"These lasers should be outlawed right away"

Nope... These 4.99mw green lasers are limited to that power specifically because at that power they DO NOT do damage to the human eye. They don't do damage even from across the room, much less a mile away (because of the divergence of the beam)

There are many semiconductor lasers available today that are much more dangerous that are in the IR spectrum, where the power in measured in watts, not milliwatts. These IR lasers are invisible to the human eye, and will permanently blind you is a few milliseconds. For that matter, a 2 watt IR laser will catch paper on fire in a second or two.

Anyone who is inappropriately playing with a green laser pointer is doing just that: "playing" It makes a good news story, but that's about it.

A serious terrorist would find something more appropriate for the task at hand.

[Djarum]

These lasers should be outlawed right away and the maroons highlighting the cockpits should be put on trial with lots of publicity.

Pure hysteria. These lasers are no more dangerous than a flashlight at 3000+ feet.

Outlaw lasers and only outlaws will have lasers.