776.012 Use or threatened use of force in defense of person.—Now I am not a lawyer, but the law seems to be clear here- the person across the street is shining a laser in your face, with the deliberate goal of causing you to be blinded. It seems to me that being blinded for life is great bodily harm.
(2) A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. A person who uses or threatens to use deadly force in accordance with this subsection does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.
I also need to see about getting some laser goggles for green lasers.
Finding laser safety goggles is easy. ThorLabs, Newport, etc.
ReplyDeleteWavelength is usually straightforward. The needed optical density - the attenuation of a given wavelength - is a little trickier as it depends on average power, peak power and the duration of the laser pulses. Very short pulses, especially, can be problematic due to the large bandwidth as well as "optical bleaching."
Most handhelds are unlikely to reach that last performance regime. For now, anyway.
What worries me more, is if the terrorists start using near infrared lasers. You can't see the laser light, but it can still blind you.