Comment Real threat is not toys (Score 1) 500
As per TFA:
"ANALYSIS: The FBI believes that only well-financed terrorist groups would be able to develop or purchase a laser blinding system. Estimates project it would cost a group approximately $50,000 to obtain a military-grade laser system."
I would personally be more concerned by the potential from "hobby lasers" such as the ones that can be built from non monitored equipment capable of burning through wood blocks and other things depending on the power of the device. This is not to discount the damage a toy laser pointing device can do to the eye, but in terms of the small moving target and distance the laser must travel and medium(s) it must pass through how can they really be a threat? Not being a laser hobbyist, I may speak not knowing the facts but it seems to me if you could get the setup going in your garage why not in a mobile device such as a small Mack truck? If you could get the stability needed to keep the alignment and the power and inert gas needed I can see the potential for a risk here. This would yield a mobile assault platform that would very difficult to track down and have the potential for damage depending on the quality and power of the laser device.
Then again, two can play the disinformation game. In terms of monetary value, a war of attrition forcing more to be spent on securing and investigating blind avenues would be devastating for security budgets. Money and resources would be wasted deterring from a more viable plan on much softer targets. Who is to say this chatter they fall on so much is not anymore accurate than the Uranium connection Iraq had? Many things have the potential to be weapons on many objects, and creating a police state will only force things into the black market which always thrives. For example the war on drugs, they are quite illegal but has that made them purged from American soil?
"ANALYSIS: The FBI believes that only well-financed terrorist groups would be able to develop or purchase a laser blinding system. Estimates project it would cost a group approximately $50,000 to obtain a military-grade laser system."
I would personally be more concerned by the potential from "hobby lasers" such as the ones that can be built from non monitored equipment capable of burning through wood blocks and other things depending on the power of the device. This is not to discount the damage a toy laser pointing device can do to the eye, but in terms of the small moving target and distance the laser must travel and medium(s) it must pass through how can they really be a threat? Not being a laser hobbyist, I may speak not knowing the facts but it seems to me if you could get the setup going in your garage why not in a mobile device such as a small Mack truck? If you could get the stability needed to keep the alignment and the power and inert gas needed I can see the potential for a risk here. This would yield a mobile assault platform that would very difficult to track down and have the potential for damage depending on the quality and power of the laser device.
Then again, two can play the disinformation game. In terms of monetary value, a war of attrition forcing more to be spent on securing and investigating blind avenues would be devastating for security budgets. Money and resources would be wasted deterring from a more viable plan on much softer targets. Who is to say this chatter they fall on so much is not anymore accurate than the Uranium connection Iraq had? Many things have the potential to be weapons on many objects, and creating a police state will only force things into the black market which always thrives. For example the war on drugs, they are quite illegal but has that made them purged from American soil?
