I don't know, but that certainly requires quite a beam to still be dangerous over a few hundred meters, especially with the pollution around to scatter the ligh

I don't know, but that certainly requires quite a beam to still be dangerous over a few hundred meters, especially with the pollution around to scatter the light... I'd wouldn't think it would be the handheld kind, but I don't know.. What I know is that the military don't have exclusivity on big lazors -- my hackspace has a couple sourced from the medical industry that are scary. They are also the size of a washing machine, so not the 'pointy' kind.