Australians outlaw "illegal" laser pointer use

John Biggs

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Monday, April 14th, 2008

In a smashing blow against my neighbor Carmine, Australia has outlawed high power laser pointers. Like Carmine, Australians cannot be trusted with high powered lasers and, like Carmine one night last summer, they’ve been shooting them at airplanes.

WA Police have reported people pointing lasers at a Royal Flying Doctor plane, a police helicopter, a rescue helicopter, and several commercial and private airplanes.

That’s right: About five aircraft have been hit so far. That’s considerably fewer people in danger than those who eat the Bloomin’ Onion each year, but no one’s outlawed that yet. Where is the fairness?

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