I have a 2GW laser in my closet. Would that count as a weapon?

Question

Well, I was wanting to make a really powerful laser to slice through this freakin' hard-as-steel weed in my yard, and I succeeded. I burned it up. >D Well, the point is, I still have that thing. 2,097,152,000Mw of concentrated light in my closet.

For one thing, It's FREAKING hot when I touch the beam, and... Ehm... I had a ditch across my finger for a few months.

Would that count as a firearm? I've burned through a square foot of steel in a few seconds with that thing.

Answer 1

WHAT?

Answer 2

It is NOT a firearm by ATF standards.

Answer 3

Ok buddy, I hate to break it to you, but you don't have a 2GW laser.  Let me tell you how I know:

A MW is not a milliwatt, it is a megawatt.  A milliwatt is mW not MW.  A typical laser pointer is about 1 mW.  A megawatt is a billion times more powerful.  A gigawatt is a trillion times more powerful.  So your laser is as powerful as a trillion laser pointers.  No wait, make that two trillion laser pointers.  I doubt it.

A typical coal power plant has an output of 1GW.  Your laser, if real, would give off 2GW of light, but would probably require at least ten times that power to run it (probably much much more) because lasers aren't 100% efficient.  So we are talking 20 GW of power required to run your laser.  That is equivalent to 20 coal power plants.  I doubt you have 20 power plants to run your laser.  Assuming you buy your electricity like the rest of us, it would cost you over $500 a second to run your laser.

If you touched your laser, you would have gone blind and your hand would have burned off, since that is 1000 times more powerful than a weapons grade laser.  It would not take a few seconds for you to burn through steal, it wouldn't take any time at all.  A one watt lasers hurts if you stick your finger in it.  And that's only one billionth the power.

Oh, and a laser that powerful would be the size of a building, not something you pull out of you closet and cut weeds with.

So I am going to have to say you do not have a 2GW lasers.

Answer 4

Yes, it would be considered a weapon, although not classed by the Police as a firearm.

Although unless somebody is foolhardy to stand still in front of it for 10 minutes you are unlikely to do more than burn out the retina and permanently blind them.

The Navy uses Laser weapons to blind attacking pilots and damage the fragile seeker heads on missiles, although these are a tad more powerful than yours.

The keys for Laser systems in Main Battle Tanks are kept locked in the armoury and are treated as much as weapons as any firearms.

Answer 5

A weapon? possibly. A firearm? No. An oxy/acetylene will do major damage to tissue as well, but still not classed as a weapon. Firearms use combustion (in a variety of forms) to fire a projectile. crossbows are weapons, but not firearms. I'm going to guess your laser is hardly battery powered, so limiting its use as a portable weapon. Imagine trying to haul a Honda generator and your laser. Not practical. An interesting note is there are VERY few local, State, or Federal Laws governing the use or possession of Flamethrowers, so check your local and state laws for heat/incendiary  weapons and in the meantime, PATENT that little star wars toy!!!!