Teen gets 30 months in prison for aiming laser pointer at plane

Palmpilot said:
Does anyone know when he will be eligible for parole if he doesn't get released due to overcrowding?
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He's going to federal prison. Federal parole was abolished in 1984.
 
douglas393 said:
I see the difference but I do not see how it applies to the case at hand. I see what he did as being analogous to me shooting a gun into the air in celebration and that bullet comes done and hits someone in the head. I did not intend for the bullet to hit them, but I am still guilty of killing the person(I believe it is manslaughter, but the lawyers in the form may disagree). I believe this happened in Philadelphia a number of years ago.
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Except it won't (at least if fired straight up). They tumble on the way down, and aren't traveling fast enough to do any damage - won't even break the skin. Now if fired at an angle like 45 degrees or so it can maintain a trajectory to keep it from tumbling it will maintain enough velocity to do damage.
 
AuntPeggy said:
It was not just one stray "bullet" that happened to hit the aircraft. It is more like you aiming your machine gun at a landing aircraft during the final approach and then aiming your machine gun at the police helicopter that was dispatched to find you.

BTW, this is not the only incident that has gotten the "perp" convicted.
http://www.laserpointersafety.com/sentences/sentences.html
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I was using the example not as an analogy to pointing the laser at the plane, but as an analogy to being legally(both criminally and civilly) responsible for the "unintended" consequences of my actions.
 
EdFred said:
It's obvious you aren't.
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Falling-bullet injuries

"Bullets are not greeting cards. Celebrate without firearms." from the IANSA Macedonian poster campaign, December 2005


Bullets fired into the air usually fall back at terminal velocity, speeds much lower than those at which they leave the barrel of a firearm. Nevertheless, people can be injured, sometimes fatally, when bullets discharged into the air fall back down. The higher mortality is related to the higher incidence of head wounds from falling bullets. Bullets fired at lower angles than vertical can be yet more dangerous, as the bullet maintains its angular ballistic trajectory and is far less likely to engage in tumbling motion, and so travels at a speed much higher than its terminal velocity in a purely vertical fall.
A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 80% of celebratory gunfire-related injuries are to the head, feet, and shoulders.[6] In the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year's Eve, the CDC says.[4] Between the years 1985 and 1992, doctors at the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, treated some 118 people for random falling-bullet injuries. Thirty-eight of them died.[7] Kuwaitis celebrating in 1991 at the end of the Gulf War by firing weapons into the air caused 20 deaths from falling bullets.[7]
Firearms expert Julian Hatcher studied falling bullets in the 1920's and calculated that .30 caliber rounds reach terminal velocities of 300 feet per second (90 m/s).[8] A bullet traveling at only 200 feet per second (61 m/s) to 330 feet per second (100 m/s) can penetrate human skin,.[9]
In 2005, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) ran education campaigns on the dangers of celebratory gunfire in Serbia and Montenegro.[10] In Serbia, the campaign slogan was "every bullet that is fired up, must come down."[11]

From wikipedia. My bold. Is this not what I described.
 
Read my first response again. Let me know when you figure it out - actually don't, I'll be dead by then.
 
EdFred said:
Read my first response again. Let me know when you figure it out - actually don't, I'll be dead by then.
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No I read your response, and you said except it won't if straight up, and then used the 45 degree angle. You put constraints on my example, that I did not put. I just said shooting up in the air(nothing about angle). However, and it seems to me the the straight up is extremely difficult to do, and so at almost any angle that is shot up there is the potential to cause death. You decided to dissect my analogy and bring it to the extreme, and maybe I should have not responded, but it seems to me you were looking for a debate, got what you were looking for, and did not like the results so decided to become insulting. However, the analogy was not to discuss the physics of shooting a bullet but about how it is not unique to be held responsible for the unintended consequences of your actions. In any case, the analogy is not really necessary because he was not convicted for the consequences but for the action, much in the same way you can be arrested for shooting a gun in the air even if no one is hurt.
 
Captain said:
You would kill yourself trying to kill a person on the ground you thought was pointing a laser at you?

You should definitely tell your AME about this. Before you fly again to be sure...
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It was obviously a joke.
 
Palmpilot said:
Does anyone know when he will be eligible for parole if he doesn't get released due to overcrowding?
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Hmmmm..

Let's see........... Some bleeding heart liberal judge will see the 30 month sentence, feel sorry for the punk, and let him out NEXT week..:yes::mad2::mad:..
 
30 months seems like a long time for this.
 
Due to the sequester, he will automatically have 20% taken off his sentence as a cost-saving measure.
 
douglas393 said:
However, as occurs so often in this country, others have done worse and suffered much less.
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Which is part of the reason people keep doing worse. Make the punishment something to be feared and there will be less crime.

Personally though, I would much prefer a punishment like 3 days (for a first offense) instead of 30 months, but make those 3 days something that they would never ever want to do again. The old "Bread and water" diet and a good daily caning would be a good start. You might even purge the record afterward so they can get a job and be productive.

2nd and 3rd offenses get proportionately longer with more severe punishment and they get a record to show for it.
 
JOhnH said:
Which is part of the reason people keep doing worse. Make the punishment something to be feared and there will be less crime.

Personally though, I would much prefer a punishment like 3 days (for a first offense) instead of 30 months, but make those 3 days something that they would never ever want to do again. The old "Bread and water" diet and a good daily caning would be a good start. You might even purge the record afterward so they can get a job and be productive.

2nd and 3rd offenses get proportionately longer with more severe punishment and they get a record to show for it.
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Unfortunately, that would never occur in this country, the ACLU would have a friggin stroke.
 
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