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UK: BBC: Laser owners 'arrested on sight'

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LAN_403

plazmatron

Tue Jan 26 2010, 11:55PM

Registered Member #1134 Joined: Tue Nov 20 2007, 04:39PM
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Posts: 351

Well sadly I`m right again. I have just had a bunch of auctions pulled off of eBay by the HSE.
Apparently electronic components are "dangerous goods, and cant be transported through the mail" !!

The way things are going you wont be able to buy any laser pointers, or anything else that isnt in mainstream use for that matter. As I said before our hobbies are at risk.....

I guarantee that within a few years, anyone with a remotely technical hobby, will be viewed as a "terrorist".
It is already happening.

Arcstarter

Wed Jan 27 2010, 01:31AM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

(A bunch of expletives. Like really, a lot... Like, so many of them...)

I really wish i could do something. Sort of like Rosa Parks, stand up for what i believe in. But i am 16, and nobody ever listens to random people anyway :P.

Once again, give everyone a gun and get rid of law enforcements... Of course society would rebuild itself into what it is today XD. Even with the laws and law enforcement in place, most everyone i know owns a gun. Other day my brother was in the middle of being broken in to (my nephew is 3 months old) and now he is buying a magnum, or another gun that could blow a kneecap off someone.

Like with alcoholics, "You have to hit rock bottom before it gets any better". Maybe soon we will be starving because everything but ramen noodles will be outlawed, because most food can be made into a weapon and cause some serious owies, if you throw it at someone hard enough. Then maybe people will understand just how wrong they where.

I question authority, not because i am smart, but because i think that most people that control the law are stupid.

dmg

Wed Jan 27 2010, 02:57AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

Arcstarter wrote ...

Maybe soon we will be starving because everything but ramen noodles will be outlawed, because most food can be made into a weapon and cause some serious owies, if you throw it at someone hard enough.

you be carefull Arcstarter, those noodles pose a serious personal health risk and are a matter of national security, what if a terrorist pokes an airline pilot's eye ball with a noodle.

Steve Conner

Wed Jan 27 2010, 09:32AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Would you mind telling us what components they were? If it was your home-made X-ray setups, I wouldn't be surprised.

Bored Chemist

Wed Jan 27 2010, 07:28PM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

plazmatron wrote ...

Well sadly I`m right again. I have just had a bunch of auctions pulled off of eBay by the HSE.
Apparently electronic components are "dangerous goods, and cant be transported through the mail" !!

The way things are going you wont be able to buy any laser pointers, or anything else that isnt in mainstream use for that matter. As I said before our hobbies are at risk.....

I guarantee that within a few years, anyone with a remotely technical hobby, will be viewed as a "terrorist".
It is already happening.

Odd that, 'cos it's not really HSE's field.

Was it really HSE or is someone just blaming "elf and safety" as usual?

plazmatron

Fri Jan 29 2010, 09:43PM

Registered Member #1134 Joined: Tue Nov 20 2007, 04:39PM
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Posts: 351

@ Steve, kinda! It was a plain 6VS-1 tetrode, though it said can be used to produce x-rays in the description.

What galled me, what that eBay (presumably under the advice of HSE) were convinced it would emit radiation all the time!
It was claimed that because of this, the item couldn't be posted.
(Double irritating since you are legally allowed to own, sell, and post Uranium ore in this country!)

Whoever it was, simply isn't qualified to make that kind of assessment, and this is what worries me.

I would think that all things considered, a moderate powered laser pointer 'could' cause a distraction to a pilot, but then the sun emerging from behind clouds 'could' cause a similar distraction.

My concern is, that the people who make rash decisions to arrest anyone with a laser pointer, (because they 'could' down a plane with it) will be the same people who will make rash, unqualified decisions about our hobby because we 'could' do x, y & z with it....

Les

Bored Chemist

Sat Jan 30 2010, 12:57AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

Was it really HSE or is someone just blaming "elf and safety" as usual?

radiotech

Tue Feb 02 2010, 02:46AM

Registered Member #2463 Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546

A green laser flash was caught on a replay video at a hockey game. Someone was specifically trying to alter the outcome of the game.

Hon1nbo

Tue Feb 02 2010, 11:18PM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1040

tsk tsk - I would have no problem with laws and rules like this if they were enacted or at least made by people who know something about the subject

I have two classic examples, I suggest everyone make sure their local Authorities of Jurisdiction are made examples of:
in Texas (where I live) a bill was passed Honoring a man for his "ingenious methods of population control" - no one bothered to look up the man, nor even ask anyone else... they thought it looked good to pass such a law and that because they see nothing wrong with it from their small little worlds that nothing was: the man's name was Albert DeSalvo - the Boston Strangler
once the bill was passed, the person who wrote it went up and criticized all of the people there for their stupidity and incapability to see anything other than what was handed to them from a person who said that they think it should be done

a second example I posted a while back in this forum: a legislative body was presented with an environmental bill to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide. It was advertised as a liquid which causes numerous deaths every year, through inhalation or ingestion, as a substance that no living being can break physical and mental dependence from, as an industrial byproduct that is so cheap many companies refuse to use anything else, and as a tasteless compound found in pretty much everything we eat and drink. Luckily people eventually caught on to the fact this liquid was water, but some people did become quite involved before they bothered to do some research.

I doubt things will get better, especially when there is an extreme case some person can use to pass legislation, but as it has been said the spirit of the law luckily will prevent many from being wrongly affected, but as in the case of Plazmatron there will always be those who apply it where it needs not be applied!

-Jimmy

p.s: the Internet Archive never removes any sites if I recall, if a website goes down it takes about 30 seconds to check if it is still there

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