I would shoot it down,too, if I could.
I understand this man’s objection to a drone hovering over his property. Don’t know if shooting it down was the right thing to do, but I can empathize with his POV.
What else could he have done? Throw a net over it and catch? Fly his own drone to collide with it? He should start GoFundMe to hire a good lawyer. I would contribute.
I’m one of the those he mentioned who is not a fan of guns, but I can totally understand why he shot it down. The laws have not caught up to drones and it will be interesting to see how they evolve to deal with all of the issues that are arising. Unfortunately, any idiot with money can own a drone and there are bound to be a lot of problems. I know that with our recent bout of major brush fires in CA there have been continuing problems with drones flying over the fires and interfering with planes dumping fire retardant. Several fire-fighting planes have had to be grounded because of the stupidity of drone operators, resulting in fires doing increased damage. I hope this guy gets off somehow and does not get stuck paying for the drone he damaged.
“I’m one of the those he mentioned who is not a fan of guns, but I can totally understand why he shot it down.”
+1. I jokingly say that the only reason I would ever get a rifle is to hunt drones over my backyard. Too bad that there seems to be some case law mounting against property owners defending their airspace from these pests.
Is there really? I’m surprised. Can you share what the cases were, BB?
I would have thought that a drone flying over one’s own property would be an invasion of privacy. If I’m sunbathing in my backyard nude (just to propose a wild hypothetical) or having sex with my spouse on my own roof, how is anyone allowed to watch and/or tape this? It’s no different than looking in someone’s windows. People have an expectation of privacy in their own homes – which includes not just being in their homes.
There was one pretty recent on
in CA… the shooter was ordered to pay for the downed drone… trying to find it now.
What are you supposed to do, run after the drone with a butterfly net? I support him 100%. Would I do the same? Well, I don’t own a shotgun. Funny, I was actually thinking that the fact he used a shotgun was significant and meant that the drone was close and the shooting didn’t endanger others. Apparently the shooter agrees with this:
Here’s one case in Calif.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/calif-man-pay-850-damages-shooting-drone-article-1.2274918
BB, I think this case (Post 8) is different. In the Post 8 case, the person flying the drone was flying it over his own property and the neighbor shot it down. The shooter was wrong in this case, and the person who owned the drone is getting $$ from the shooter. (They’re arguing over how much.)
But in the case in Post 1, the folks owning and operating the drone were flying it over someone else’s property.
Lol, good for him. Nice how he clearly thought through what to shoot it with - birdshot so that people couldn’t complain that he could have killed someone.
I wonder if there is some way to down a drone by blocking the signal somehow? And doing so while not interfering with other manned aircraft. Better get Jack Bauer on this right away.
This case is different fron the California case. In California case, they claim the drone was not in the guy’s yard who shoot it down. Or at least, it was not proven that it invaded his yard. Kentucky man claims the drone was over his yard and hovering, not just flying by. His case is much stronger imo. No one is disputing that the drone was over his yard, it was staying, not passing by and he used the gun with safety in mind. It was a measured response not a hot headed one.
Drones are a big problem, and the law and the FAA have not caught up to this. What I don’t understand is how drones are given this exemption, people who are into radio controlled planes and model rockets have rules about where they can fly and with rockets there also is a ceiling depending on where you fly. This is to protect both aircraft and properly, and they are commonsense laws. Unfortunately, there have been attempts to regulate drones, and there has been political pushback from some parties, claiming that regulation would hurt the industry and so forth.
Drones also are a threat to privacy they don’t need to be low to the ground, many of them have high resolution cameras that can spy from quite a height, and they also can be off the person’s property pretty easily (after all, unless you live in a rural area, most houses in the burbs are maybe 100 feet from the street or so and houses on the sides are maybe 10 feet off the property line, so spying is not all that hard, or harassment.
I don’t blame the guy for shooting the drone down if it was over his own property, though what worries me is if the guy was in a crowded area (I didn’t read the full article), shooting at something in the air like that can be dangerous, a bullet shot up like that can come down a long ways away, assuming he was firing at an angle, and not straight up.
These need to be regulated, there is no doubt, this is not about civil libertarian stuff, this is about safety and privacy.
Yes, they can be jammed, the transmitters operate on specific frequencies, they prob are using the bands that model airplane guys use. That said, though, it is likely you as the jammer would get in a lot more trouble then the idiot flying the drone, the FCC frowns on doing things like jamming transmissions, even if it is relatively localized, like the bands a drone is on. Among other things, if the drone doesn’t have some sort of ‘limp home’ capability, where if it loses the radio signal it will land itself, it could cause some problems, even though the drones are pretty light.
People cannot just go around shooting guns up into the air. Those bullets do come down somewhere eventually if they do not hit their mark.
This fellow shot BBs, not bullets.
ahh… I guess I should read the article first…oops
People should read the articles. He used bird shot for that very reason.
Clearly, a gun was just too obvious. Until the law catches up, I’ve started a kickstarter for those who want to protect their property. I present to you “Just a Random Bird” - the perfect track and attack system that looks just like a bird. When those punks stroll up to your door demanding for their drone and that you pay for it, just shrug and say, "It was just a random bird! “Just a Random Bird”.
I agree.
If I were a celebrity, this would really really bother me. Anyone can send a drone over your yard to try to photograph you on your own property and you are not allowed to do anything about it?
As a regular citizen, it’s not LIKELY this would happen to me, but I wouldn’t like it one bit either. I have also read about the potential for evil these drones have. I don’t even want to mention the possibilities.