Absolutely. The usual pattern seems to be surviving on-rushing disaster by drawing back from the precipice at the last possible moment (or clawing our way back over the edge), congratulating ourselves for surviving (well, most of us, more or less), and then POSSIBLY establishing the controls to keep our collective lack of self control from endangering us again.
The commercial biotech engineering firms and university labs presently doing CRISPR research are at least under some form of supervision. That can be always be strengthened.
Your cartoon points to the real danger; free lancing geneticists (degreed and amateurs) pursuing their own intellectual, political, social, sexual, or whatever agendas and grasping onto the notion that genetic engineering of organisms can somehow aid in implementing them.
Most people, perhaps even a vast majority of them, have sufficient feelings of responsibility, compassion, and empathy for others to keep such impulses in check. But for a small, actually very small fraction, of the population, those restraints are eaten away by envy, hatred, feelings of resentment, etc. and they only desire to use their skills and their intellect to achieve their dark purposes. For those who doubt this, simply consider the ingenuity and effort that bombers will sometimes put into designing and crafting their infernal weapons. Intellect subservient to evil is a recurring theme in individual life histories and in the lives of nations.
There have to be “tells,” warnings or indicators, that act as tip offs if this technology is being used outside controlled, regulated, and supervised environments. These need to be identified and carefully monitored.