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Well the idea of a "death ray" sounds good but in practice atmospheric and specular diffusion attenuate the beams a bucket load. All cutting Lasers are focused beams where as high powered tight beam Lasers ionise the air and burn floating particles which interfere with the beam itself causing it to gradually attenuate and beam spread.
Still I'd luv a 1.2Kw CO 2 Laser to get get that stray Cat that keeps c@%7)/ on our door step...insert evil laugh!
But it boils down to this, if they can get a tight beam from a green Laser (500nm) 5mw to shine 12,000 ft plus these days I'm not surprised that the Law is intervening. I see that IR laser diodes are used to pump the Laser crystal rods in some Lasers. No wonder they are so powerful and of course the IR Laser diode pump is not a desirable piece of kit to play with. One shot and you'll never see properly again....worse case scenario.
I'd severely doubt that the Laws will be amended to Preclude Astronomy Lasers from the "Acts" power limits. This would take an investigation by a scientific research Lab (such as AWADI or the QLD Uni optics Lab), which of course, needs to be paid for.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.
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