Drop That Laser Pointer!

I feel kinda bad for the laser pointer guy that got caught the other day. I understand he was being a moron and should be punished, but 25 years in jail and half a million dollars seems a tad excessive. I know the far right people are gonna say, "He deserves it. Cut off his arms and legs and kill his family. Lock him up and throw away the key." I just think if we punished everyone who screwed up in a moment of stupidity that harshy, a lot more of us would be in jail.
I also think the law is being misapplied. They know this guy isn't a terrorist yet they're charging him under the Patriot Act. You have to ask yourself, if they really feel this guy is a threat would they send another aircraft to search him out like they did. If a guy is shooting down planes with stinger missiles you don't send a helicoptor to hover around where he is. No, he's more of a distraction and an annoyance than a threat. We have other laws that cover that. He knew it was wrong but he obviously didn't think it through and didn't see it as a big deal. The fact that this happens hundreds of times a year attests to this. He wasn't trying to kill anyone. He was just playing with a laser pointer with his daughter.
They're talking about making laser pointers illegal now. They're already done it in Britian. At least it will get them out of the movie theaters. That gets really annoying. I don't think it's all of them, though. Just the real bright green lasers like the one he was using.