My first line was that they can cause severe damage to the eyes. Categorically responding with “False” seems a bit odd.
The only place that the article uses the word “instant” is in the line " life was instantaneously and irreversibly changed, ", which is a bit of artistic licences, not meant to be taken literally. I’m not sure how you know for certain that she didn’t stand still as she was standing there on guard duty.
[A paper published in the journal Ophthalmology in 1997 demonstrated retinal damage with continuous exposure to light from a laser pointer in as little as 10 seconds. In practice it would be difficult to damage the eye because the eye makes lots of tiny eye movements causing it to be almost impossible to achieve 10 seconds of continuous exposure. No cases of permanent damage from laser pointers labeled type II or IIIA have been reported in the literature.
Recently, a paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrating permanent vision loss in a 15 year-old in Switzerland who ordered a laser off the internet. The laser was not regulated and had a power output of 150 milliwatts, which is 30 times more powerful than laser pointers sold in the United States. The boy was using the laser to burn holes in paper and to pop balloons. The boy shined the laser in his eye and suffered permanent, moderate vision loss.](Can Laser Pointers Hurt Your Eyes? - Patty Vision Centers - Eyecare of Residents of Burlington, Roxboro, and Yanceyville, NC)
So a 150mw was only enough to cause moderate loss of eyesight from close range.
But the thermal damage could also cause a permanent blank spot, he said, which is impossible to treat and would require retina replacement, he said. That type of damage is very rare, however, and Bressler said that he had mainly seen it in people who’ve been in industrial accidents.
Just saying, as I said, which you contradicted with your categorical decree of “False”, lasers can cause severe eye damage. However, it is not instant, and it can be easily blocked.
The real danger is from blue or violet lasers, as they are not perceived to be bright enough to make you automatically flinch away. Green and red tend to be “safer”.
I do rate them at the same level of nuisance and annoyance as rocks. Yes, they can cause real injury, but only if someone is really unlucky.
And once again, the proper response to such a thing would be leave the area, not start firing into the crowd. And I absolutely guarantee you that the “less lethal” crowd control munitions and tactics that they are using are orders of magnitude more dangerous than a laser pointer.