Melding Beam Weapons and Guns

[Willy]

Originally Posted by Plane

That could also explain how you could swipe a laser pointer across a room and in theory blind a dozen guys... although there should probably be something in regard to "exposure time" to light needed to do damage to retina.

It has a reason why in many nations, including mine the output of laser pointers is capped, some of them go in the 5 Watt range or higher, the time of exposure for eye damage is extremely short. Depending how close you are it´s less than 1/10 of a second. The distance to to the laser is also important. Of course you need to differ between short time blindness, and lasting crippling injuries. Military or police forces want to mark the target, so the output is lower, dangerous for eyes it´s nevertheless. Normally this forces are not interested in a unnecessary high output, because the batteries are draining faster. Some nations build blinding lasers on purpose, or experiment for Spec Op / SWAT Forces with lasers that can switch power output, between target / blinding mode. Also their are experiments with lasers that blink at very high frequency, so that they can trigger epileptic seizures. GURPS High Tech page 181 has further Info about lasers. Because time goes on their are claims by china and russia that they build portable lasers, that are able to shoot down drones.