Like father, like son.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul cast the sole vote in the Senate against an amendment to the FAA re-authorization bill which would make it a federal crime to flash a “laser pointer” at airplanes.
The Senate approved the measure, 96-1.
Paul, who is a member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus, said he thought it best to leave it up to the states to determine their own laws about the issue.
“I think that it is a bad idea to point lasers at pilots,” Paul told The Daily Caller. “There are a lot of states that already have laws, and I think the states ought to take care of it.”
Paul’s father, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, is notorious for standing alone in the House against resolutions, including a recent vote honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo.
According to the FAA, there were 2,836 reported incidents of people pointing laser pointers at pilots in the cockpit from 2009-2010.