On July 9, 1968, U.S. Patent No. 3,392,261 issued to Frederick R. Schollhammer on a Portable Beam Generator (a laser gun):

Frederick was born on March 8, 1925, in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1943 he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Air Force, and was commissioned a second Lieutenant and served as a pilot in the European theater of Operations until the end of the war, was discharged as a First Lieutenant. After the war he enrolled in Trinity College earning bachelor and master’s degrees in physics. He was employed by United Technology and Hamilton Standard laboratories in developing patents and the commercial use of electron beam technology for medical and aeronautical applications. He also received U.S. Patent Nos. 3132239 and 3483352 also related to the use of energy beams for welding.

His name and his patent come up in discussions of laser guns, but his inventions related to the use of laser beams for welding, not as a weapon.