A prick with a laser pointer…there’s a rather vivid image. Wifey’s World needs to be all over this.
Me too, but that’s because I’m lucky enough to live in a country where the probability of idiots pointing guns at randoms in bars is very, very small indeed. Clearly Airman Doors lives in a place where it’s neither illegal nor unusual for people to be armed in bars, and where enough of those people are so completely stupid that they think it’s a good idea to point their weapons at strangers for laughs. So I’d say his instinctive reaction has at least a modicum of justification, wouldn’t you?
I repeat: instinctive reaction.
Only one person decided what to do in cold blood, and that was the brainiac who started this. It is all, yes all, his fault.
You’re jumping to at least a couple of conclusions.
First of all, it isn’t that common, even here in the gun-happy USA, for people to be totin’ guns into bars left and right. Even for upstanding young heroes like **Airman Doors **who are morally stirling and right thinking, being in a bar with a gun is few and far between. Well, maybe it goes on more often in rural areas, but as I understand it this was a bar in a city.
Secondly, you may have watched Tango and Cash one too many times. Laser sights aren’t de riguer for your average, “Hey look, I got me a gun” types. In fact, I’d be willing to bet you’ll find more guns without them, them with them.
Thirdly, I agree that the cops in this situation were being giant bags-of-douche, and if our esteemed **Airman **had plugged them, I probably wouldn’t have been crying for the death penalty for him. But he did overreact. He’s admitted as much.
OK, that made me laugh. 
Diogenes, do you remember how people keep getting on your case for making foolish and dismissive comments? This is one of them.
Hey, wait a minute. Elephants don’t have thumbs! This whole story’s bullshit!
I haven’t watched Tango and Cash even once, and am quite well aware that laser sights are stupid. But then we’re talking about people who think it’s funny to point weapons at people in bars - such people are clearly stupid. I also know that there are more than enough morons who care more about how their guns (and cars) look than how they function to make laser sighted guns entirely plausible, no matter how impractical they may be. Indeed, the sort of idiot who thinks this kind of prank is funny is exactly the sort of idiot who might ask for “the gun Danny Glover had in Predator 2, dude.”
Maybe so, in hindsight. But people in this thread have been screaming at him and accusing him of all sorts of wacky shit, as if he were the person at sole fault for the incident. At worst he reacted in a way that, while justifiable, might not have been the best option available. And he did this in response to a situation that would never have occurred had it not been for a complete moron. If all you’re saying is, “hey, you might want to do it slightly differently in future,” then fine. Fantome et al have been far more belligerent, verging on completely fucking retarded.
Incidentally, when I was at university a friend of mine got run up in front of the college authorities because he had been testing out his laser pointer by shining it at the examinations authority building opposite our campus. The security guards decided my friend had been trying to assassinate the building, and came round demanding that he be arrested. Now that was stupid. We have building codes in the UK - it would’ve taken at least a couple of rounds of the canteen tapioca to bring that puppy down.
Poetic license.
But my point is, it’s a pretty big stretch to go from “laser dot” to “weapon”, unless your wired a little tightly to begin with.
Maybe. Of course, it actually was a weapon, which rather suggests that the inference wasn’t that far-fetched. How many people really find laser pointers amusing these days anyway? I haven’t even seen one in years. Face it, pointy sticks are far more practical for giving presentations with, and you can roast marshmallows on them to boot.
You’re obviously using the wrong laser pointers. 
If I saw an elephant in a bar, the last thing I would notice or care about is whether he has a taser.
Whatever the circumstances in the bar, the most unwise thing Airman Doors did was to post about this on the SDMB.
Edited: bolding.
Thanks, Doors, for reminding me what a ridiculous twat you are.
This is probably the most correct thing said in this thread, anything else I might have said notwithstanding.
Such is life.
Thank you for proving my point. Pretty simple concept. These terms have very specific meanings in the law. When intent is mentioned in a law it means that the intent of the actor is the important factor. Your two additional cites reaffirm that. It is not the act of shining a laser at someone, it is the intent of making them think that a firearm is aimed at them. There was nothing in the OP to make any reasonable person think that it was the intent. Helpfully Doors came back and confirmed that:
No intent. No assault. As I said before, I agreed with you. There can be circumstances where you could make the arguement for assault if the intent could be proven. This one was not even close.
It still doesn’t mean that the cop shouldn’t be thrown off the force for doing something so reckless as pointing a weapon at someone.
sigh nice cherry picking.
from the article
Regardless of any other issue being discussed, I don’t remember anyone defending the actions of the officer. There is no defense. He is an idiot.
Agreed. I also don’t have any problem with Airman Doors’ reaction.
Call names and run away? Nope, I just don’t sit here everyday all day and post every tiny thought that pops into my head. I have lots of guts, and even a bit of a life, you?
I just quoted your last statement because that was the final one for me, you have taken the original statement of** AD’s,**
.
and spun it into a yard of a hysterical overreacting, PTSD faking, non-trained, half-soused civilian shrieking like a girl shooting up the placebecause someone pointed a light at him.
I loved how you went on and on and on and fucking on about a taser not being a real weapon.
Then you blah blah blah for a bit. And go on about how your military training didn’t involve real firearms training, so no way could AD’s.
More blah blah fucking blah dribbles from you.
AD offered his take on the six page dog-pile, you actually showed some class.
It didn’t last though, when MsRobyn defended AD, and slapped you downfor the PTSD crack with an explanation why, you go back to being an idiot.
Zut points out to you the offending post, you post more blah blah blah when the right thing to do is say “Sorry MsRobyn if I offended you, it was not my intent.”
So, in short sir, you are an idiot.