[VLM]

Consumer lasers will be the spray paint of the next century. One small segment of the population will see them as an overly expensive way to accomplish tasks slightly more conveniently than the alternatives, and another larger segment of the population will use them mostly to trash their environment, leading to all kinds of weird attempts at legal restrictions.

No one has mentioned the obvious terrorism related issues with lasers. The worst body counts won't be individual random "makers" with poor coding skills and their bystanders, or even the cops, it'll likely be, say, an entire stadium instantly blinded, or really any public location, such as interstate highway overpasses or airport security lines. I suspect we'll soon have discussion on the topic of "weapons of mass destruction" as applies to lasers. Based on past experience, if some Saudi citizens snuck something in to the stadium (drone delivered?) then blinded everyone attending the Superbowl, would we invade Venezuela conventionally or nuke Iran?