It's a bird, it's a plane ... no, it's a drone -- shoot it!

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Co'tor Shas**

source
I heard this on the radio yesterday and thought it was too good not to share.

(CNN) -- Deer Trail, a small Colorado town, is considering a measure that would allow its residents to hunt for federal drones and shoot them down.
"Is it illegal? Of course it is. But it's also illegal to spy on American citizens," resident Phillip Steel told CNN in a phone interview. "If they fly in town, we will shoot them down."
Steel said he wrote the ordinance after he learned the Federal Aviation Administration "loosened regulations that would allow the flight of drones in domestic airspace."
The FAA recently announced plans to create six drone test sites around the country, none of which has been publicly listed. It plans to allow widespread use of domestic drones in 2015. "The overall purpose of this test site program is to develop a body of data and operational experiences to inform integration and the safe operation of these aircraft in the National Airspace System," the agency said.
Drones are cheaper to operate than helicopters. They can be used for multiple tasks, such as monitoring crops and livestock and assessing building damage.
Deer Trail, which bills itself as the "Home of the World's First Rodeo," has 584 residents and is 50 miles outside Aurora. The entire town takes up less than one square mile. Any resident can petition for a citizens' initiative and then draft an ordinance.
Bounties and shotguns
The Town Board of Trustees will vote on the drone ordinance on August 6. If passed, it would legalize the sale of drone hunting licenses for $25 and offer bounties for captured drones. Six trustees and the mayor make up the board. It would take a simple majority vote to pass the ordinance.
"It is very symbolic ... it's asserting our right and drawing a line in the sand," Steel said. "It declares sovereignty of the airspace."
The ordinance doesn't aim to stop airliner flights, he said. It outlines the rules of engagement for drone hunters and the types of ammunition allowed. Bounty amounts from $25 to $100, and weapons are limited to 12-gauge shotguns.
It states that "no background investigation shall be performed" on those seeking a drone hunting license. Additionally, the licenses would be "issued on an anonymous basis."
"Unmanned aerial vehicles may be engaged at a vertical distance of one thousand feet or less," and the "licenses shall only remain valid within the geographic boundaries of the Town of Deer Trail, Colorado," according to the ordinance.
Federal legislation (18 USC 1361) prohibits stealing or damaging federal government property and establishes provisions for fines and imprisonment.
The illegality of the actions within the ordinance doesn't scare Steel.
"I took an oath when I joined the military to protect the U.S. Constitution. That oath did not end when I left," he said.
When asked if he had ever seen a drone in Deer Trail, Steel said, "In real life, no. I hope I never see a drone in Deer Trail. ... This ordinance is a statement against the coming surveillance society. It's a very clear statement against that."
"In all practicality, nobody is going to shoot down any drones any time soon," he added.
'Our mark on the map'
Town Clerk Kim Oldfield says she believes the ordinance could benefit the town.
"This could actually be something to help fund a community center or build us some roads. We need to find our mark on the map," Oldfield said. "The novelty of being allowed to buy a drone-hunting license could turn into a fun thing."
Board of Trustees member David Boyd said the ordinance has a good chance of passing.
"I think it's important. I know Phil Steel also wants to make a statement about drones. ... Mostly for us, the outcome we want will be to have some fun and make some money," Boyd said.
Deer Trail Mayor Frank Fields says he agrees with Boyd. He said the purpose of the ordinance would be "to have fun and bring in business, tourism and activities for people in town."
Colorado Attorney General John W. Suthers said state residents have a sense of humor. He responded to the idea of the ordinance by saying, "A resolution by the town of Deer Trail to allow the hunting of drones is made in the same spirit as the proposal of some rural Coloradans to create a separate state. And both ideas have the same chance to legally succeed: none."

**hotsauceman1**

How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

**Co'tor Shas**

It's not, but it's still funny.

**Kanluwen**

What's really funny is that these backwoods hillfolk don't realize that drones can be used for more than "hurp they're spying on us!".

NASA operates drones that they fly into hurricanes and tropical storms to collect meteorological data, the National Guard has used drones at the request of state and local law enforcement agencies to help find missing individuals or suspects that have fled.

**Co'tor Shas**

Yeah, and drones could be used for things like checking power lines and such in places that are hard to get to.

**timetowaste85**

Once again, rednecks ruin our nice things.

**Grey Templar**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

1) Drones, and any small aircraft, are actually quite fragile. If they get hit with any decent sized bullet they'll go down. If they get hit...

2) People aren't inside

3) Sure... Sure they aren't...

**hotsauceman1**

How low flying is the drone then?

**Kanluwen**

Grey Templar wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

1) Drones, and any small aircraft, are actually quite fragile. If they get hit with any decent sized bullet they'll go down. If they get hit...

2) People aren't inside

3) Sure... Sure they aren't...

What's a drone going to find out that you don't want the government to know, that a low flying helicopter wouldn't find?

**Co'tor Shas**

Kanluwen wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

1) Drones, and any small aircraft, are actually quite fragile. If they get hit with any decent sized bullet they'll go down. If they get hit...

2) People aren't inside

3) Sure... Sure they aren't...

What's a drone going to find out that you don't want the government to know, that a low flying helicopter wouldn't find?

Does the NSA even need helicopter?

**Gentleman_Jellyfish**

Kanluwen wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

1) Drones, and any small aircraft, are actually quite fragile. If they get hit with any decent sized bullet they'll go down. If they get hit...

2) People aren't inside

3) Sure... Sure they aren't...

What's a drone going to find out that you don't want the government to know, that a low flying helicopter wouldn't find?

It's not just about the ability to do it, but the ability to do it in large numbers and cheaply that I find suspect.

**MrMoustaffa**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

They've shot down drones with a rifle before. I'd imagine a guy with a 12 gauge using buckshot would probably have a far better chance of shooting one down, since all you need to hit is the props and buckshot would shred them, or at least the sheer mass of lead would knock it off balance. They've gotta be lightweight to fly, and even if it's a 100 feet in the air that buckshot still has plenty of energy.

Also, they have been used to "spy" on people, although usually you only hear about animal rights groups using them to spy on hunters. I haven't heard of a government one being shot down yet. I would imagine the government isn't very keen on letting people know if it's actually using drones to spy on people.

Some videos about the SHARK one that got shot down. WARNING, the videos can have some graphic content, the hunters are pretty brutal with the pigeons.

Spoiler:

The saddest part is that you can tell that they're trying to do a good cause, but jesus, that guy's voice in the second video makes me want to shoot one of his drones down too. When will environmental activists learn that the condescending voice only turns off people that would normally help them?

**d-usa**

Drones can check pipelines, powerlines, flooding, droughts, wild fires, search for missing people, etc etc etc. Do we need some checks on drones, sure. But getting rid of drones completely is silly.

**hotsauceman1**

I dont see him as condescening. He is making a good point, they where doing highly illegal things.

**sirlynchmob**

Co'tor Shas wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

1) Drones, and any small aircraft, are actually quite fragile. If they get hit with any decent sized bullet they'll go down. If they get hit...

2) People aren't inside

3) Sure... Sure they aren't...

What's a drone going to find out that you don't want the government to know, that a low flying helicopter wouldn't find?

Does the NSA even need helicopter?

No, they just turn on your webcam to see what you are doing.

Am I the only one that sees this as a clever way to get revenue for the city? But I bet Amazon won't deliver with drones over there

step 1) Sell worthless drone licenses to all the tinfoil hat people.
step 2) ??? hey we don't need a step 2.
step 3) profit.

Look at all the money that has been made selling property on the moon & mars.

**DarkTraveler777**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
I dont see him as condescening. He is making a good point, they where doing highly illegal things.

Yeah, same here. The narrator doesn't have the best voice for voice-over work, but I picked up on disgust and anger on his part rather than condescension. Had to stop watching the video when the hunters were punting wounded pigeons so maybe I didn't watch enough of it to get the really condescending parts.

**MrMoustaffa**

hotsauceman1 wrote:I dont see him as condescening. He is making a good point, they where doing highly illegal things.

DarkTraveler777 wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
I dont see him as condescening. He is making a good point, they where doing highly illegal things.

Yeah,. The narrator doesn't have the best voice for voice-over work, but I picked up on disgust and anger on his part rather than condescension. Had to stop watching the video when the hunters were punting wounded pigeons so maybe I didn't watch enough of it to get the really condescending parts.

Yeah I'm not saying he's making bad points, but the guy talking in the second video just comes across as... well, I don't know. I want to say rude or condescending, but I don't know if that's the best way to describe it. He just sounds extremely arrogant in the way he talks, especially in parts like where he talks about dealing with the police and how they wouldn't do anything. It's like he's talking to a child or something but with a really sarcastic tone. The first one is no problem though, that guy they interview comes across as perfectly reasonable and polite, and must be a different one than the guy speaking in the second video.

Maybe it's a regional accent or something? Because if you spoke with that kind of tone to someone around here you'd likely get a punch to the jaw.

Also added a disclaimer to the video about the rough footage, didn't think to add that, sorry.

**AduroT**

One of the local news stations was using a drone to record crowd footage of the huge line during the recent Baconfest here.

**Seaward**

AduroT wrote:
One of the local news stations was using a drone to record crowd footage of the huge line during the recent Baconfest here.

I'm not sure they're allowed to do that until the government comes down with new rules on commercial enterprise with drones, which isn't going to be until 2015 at the earliest.

**d-usa**

Was it a "drone", or was it one of those fancy remote controlled quad-helicopter thingies that you can buy at the mall?

**marv335**

Each license comes with a free tinfoil drone hunting hat....

**Peregrine**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?

Think of it as an interesting engineering challenge: design and construct a viable surface to air missile that can still technically be considered a "12 gauge shotgun".

**d-usa**

Peregrine wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?

Think of it as an interesting engineering challenge: design and construct a viable surface to air missile that can still technically be considered a "12 gauge shotgun".

So drones are actually a secret government project to get more kids interested in STEM classes for this kind of problem?

**Orlanth**

Kanluwen wrote:
What's really funny is that these backwoods hillfolk don't realize that drones can be used for more than "hurp they're spying on us!".

NASA operates drones that they fly into hurricanes and tropical storms to collect meteorological data, the National Guard has used drones at the request of state and local law enforcement agencies to help find missing individuals or suspects that have fled.

Yes they are all weather drones. Lets do the nodding dog.
Sorry there was enough Wolf cried over this one that seeing drones raises honest questions.

**KingCracker**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

I'm going to guess you didn't realize a 12 gauge slug is in the .50 caliber range of bullets. Now..... does your key board knowledge of firearms tell you a. .50 caliber round can take down a drone?

**agnosto**

If my neighbor shoots down my pizza being delivered by Dominos drone or my razor blades by Amazon drone, it'll be the Hatfields and McCoys all over again....

**hotsauceman1**

KingCracker wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?
Also, how is it different from helicopters flying around?
Also. THEY ARE NOT BEING USED TO SPY ON YOU DAMNIT

I'm going to guess you didn't realize a 12 gauge slug is in the .50 caliber range of bullets. Now..... does your key board knowledge of firearms tell you a. .50 caliber round can take down a drone?

No need to be rude. I just never thought that Military drones where weak enough to die to a twelve Guage

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Peregrine wrote:
hotsauceman1 wrote:
How is a 12 guage gonna stop a drone?

Think of it as an interesting engineering challenge: design and construct a viable surface to air missile that can still technically be considered a "12 gauge shotgun".

What if it was a device the just fire a 12 guage shotgun out that would it the Drone? Would that count as hunting with a twelve guage?

**Grey Templar**

Its more like true military drones will be flying way too high to get hit, much less seen, by small arms on the ground.

The drones in question are smaller low altitude drones. Not Predator drones.

**hotsauceman1**

Oh, There seems to be a mis understanding then.

**agnosto**

That and most people equate 12 gauge with buckshot not slugs.