How do you know if something is legal or illegal?

There's some useful guidance (I won't say 'pointers' ) given in sections 3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 of [broken link removed] — but they obviously don't address the question of legality.

This suggests (?) that it is not illegal to sell or own a properly-labelled class IIIb laser pointer in the EU, but says nothing about the legality of their use.

Thanks Dr Moriarty - thats more or less what Ive found also. Plenty of info on general safety, issues surrounding usage etc... but nothing on legality.

The reason Im questioning legal issues is that some posts on both boards.ie and on astronomy irelands archived boards suggest they might fall under 'possession of a firearm' - however these posts are just random people talking, there is nothing to back up this claim, and in particular on astronomy irelands website the poster states he 'thinks' and the posts themselves are quite old.

And if you look into buying one (on ebay for example) any of the more reputable ebay sellers (UK sellers with good feedback) state that they do not take responsibility for sales of such pointers into regions where they may be illegal - so Im taking from that that they must be illegal somewhere.

A user who hasnt enough posts to post here pm'd me and gave me some very relevant info on my question - I asked if I could post it here as it adds useful information to the thread:

"Hi,

I can't post on the Shooting the Breeze thread, but if you do a search on www.irishstatutebook.ie for weapon the most relevant piece of legislation is the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act, 1990

This Act covers the definition of a "weapon of offence". Lasers aren't specifically included but infra-red sights for guns are.

Also Section 9(4) of the Act is noteworthy:

"Where a person, without lawful authority of reasonable excuse (the onus of proving which shall lie on him), has with him in any public place -

(a) any flick knife, or

(b) any other article whatsoever made or adapted for use causing injury to or incapacitating a person,

he shall be guilty of an offence

The other relevant Act is the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 have a look at the definition of assault under Section 2.

This includes the application of light to a person. So it's not necessarily what you own, it's what you do with it that's the problem. Just don't go shining the laser into the eyes of a Garda or you could be done for assault.

Good Luck,
Dachshund"

Thanks Dachshund, I was concerned that possession alone could be an offence, but judging by above it would not be - and if only used for purposes for which it was made (i.e., astronomy) it is probably ok.