Private pilot here - while I've never experienced a laser incident while flying (and I sure as hell never want to), it's not as hard to hit an aircraft with a laser as you might think. People who do this aren't targeting 767's at 33,000 - they're hitting the ones taxiing on the ground, those flying at low altitudes, or worse, those in the pattern for a landing. The night blindness from getting hit with a laser can have fatal consequences, and it carries serious penalties.

See the image at the lower right on the first page for a sampling of the effects of being hit with a green laser(warning: PDF): http://www.ifalpa.org/downloads/Level1/Briefing%20Leaflets/M...

Law enforcement takes these sorts of things very seriously. Here's a video(SFW) of one person who hit a police helicopter and was arrested minutes later:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6617532/guy-shines-laser-p...