laser pointers

Matthew Razenberger wrote:
> If any troops have had problems with laser pointers on campouts, tell
> me how you took care of it. One of the new scouts in the troop brought
> one and got the whole troop into some trouble.

I haven't dealt with this, but at the last SM meeting of our council I
was shown an article in one of the local papers (the Lowell Sun) about
such a problem. From what I read, evidently one of the scouts brought
one on a camping trip, and a local police officer saw the spot being
shined on people in the woods. He thought it was a gunsight beam, and
evidently most of the local police were called in to descend upon this
campout.

Fortunately for the local scout groups, the article was written in
such a way it didn't really criticize the troop's action (more it was
critical of the police overreaction). But it was brought up for us to
consider whether we wanted to address the issue as a group.

Personally the only reason I would consider bringing a laser pointer
on a camping trip (if I had one) is if we were doing planning or
something where I was doing a presentation and would want to highlight
some written or projected material (or maybe as an exotic
communications device if I was doing a demo on advanced
communications). It would get used for that, and then put away. I
see no reason for the scouts to bring them, and I would make that
point clear. Besides, at some point they would shine them in my eyes
and I'd confiscate them like I do with flashlights. Then I'd have
lots of laser pointers.

Jon

--
Jon Dixon
dixonj@colorado.edu
http://sandman.colorado.edu/~dixonj/

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message
• Previous message
• Next in thread

What's become of SCOUTER Magazine, the print publication?

Buy the Back Issues