The idea of deliberately aiming a laser at an aircraft in flight is something that scares me greatly. While it likely poses little or no real threat to the safety of a commercial airliner, it could easily kill a General Aviation pilot if it blinded him/her temporarily.

Maybe laser pointers should come with an unmistakeable warning that deliberately pointing them at an aircraft in flight constitutes the federal crime of "endangering the safety of an aircraft in flight" which, I believe, carries a maximum sentence of death in the United States, and life imprisonment in Canada. Maybe then kids who got one as a present for Christmas would think it less funny to try to blind an airline pilot.