A man in Florida shot down a drone that flew over his property. It was doing a demo delivery for Walmart. He's been charged with criminal mischief and worked out a plea deal.
Here's the story...
https://share.newsbreak.com/ae49ndcs
What do you think? Should it be legal to shoot down a drone?
Please vote in the poll.
I think American gun owners, as part of their licensing requirements, should be informed of and tested on a strict standard of what constitutes a legitimate threat that can be shot at. I would have to imagine that gets at least MENTIONED, hopefully, during the current process, but I’m honestly not sure if it is.
We’ve been seeing this bullshit since Trayvon Martin. “I feared for my life” is WAY too broad and loose of a standard. Being afraid of losing a potential fistfight should NOT be covered, holy shit. Lethal force shouldn’t be applied to non-lethal threats, period. I would rather a nice guy get beat up and a bad guy lives to see another day than the bad guy get his head blown off because the nice guy can’t handle a black eye or a bloody nose, wrong or right. It’s simply not that serious.
And you can all miss me by a country mile with “BuT hE cOuLd GeT kNoCkEd OuT aNd FrAcTuRe HiS sKuLL oN tHe GrOuNd”…. stop it. STOP IT. If you go outside in the rain you might get hit by lightning too, I don’t really know what to tell you. If you’re looking for guaranteed safety, life on Earth is just not for you, I’m sorry.
Just…. WHERE THE FUCK ARE OUR PRIORITIES, FOLKS?
I have no problem with the concept of gun ownership of self-defense, if truly legitimate and responsible. “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people”, right? Agreed…. and my problem IS “people.” Let me shout from a mountaintop, unequivocally: I DO NOT, ON THE WHOLE, TRUST RANDOM HUMANS’ ABILITIES TO MAKE THEIR OWN ACCURATE THREAT-LEVEL ASSESSMENTS FOR THEMSELVES. Like I’m sorry, but I just don’t.
I am so THOROUGHLY UNIMPRESSED by the general existence and social-atmospheric contributions of a cool 90% of humanity (certainly American humanity, anyway), on most levels, not just self-defense. I have lost most of my fundamental trust in individual humans to “do the right thing”, as it relates to doing what’s not only best for themselves, but more importantly, best for all of us, collectively, as partners in a society. Freedom is great if you aren’t brimming with stupidity, selfishness, shortsightedness, and just general self-delusion…. but we are, and giving us some of the supposed “freedoms” we have is really just tossing the keys to a guy who just chugged a bottle of water.
The longer I live, the more I realize humans are incredibly stupid and need to be under pretty heavy regulation to achieve positive societal results. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but dead serious, when I see dictatorships now…. I kinda get it. Not the real ugly stuff, but just the more orderly side of it.
The trouble comes in finding not-stupid humans who have benevolent intentions, they seem to be in very short supply. And how do we identify who the person/people are who are wise and decent are in the first place? All kinds of new problems arise for sure, and I don’t necessarily have answers. But I look around at American “freedom”, and more and more, I see an existential debacle than anything else. And the freedom to carry and discharge guns is just not something I trust most Americans with, because I don’t think a supposedly-threatened party thinks clearly or “big picture, beyond themselves” enough in moments of fear.
That’s actually a good word to work with to summarize what I’m saying: FEAR. I don’t trust fearful people to make logical decisions in moments of fear, and I furthermore feel like most people’s self-perception of what constitutes a threat is almost never to be relied on. I mean, even if you’re “the good guy”, unless the other guy is legitimately in the process of attempting to kill you, I’m very uncomfortable with the solution being “and the bad guy’s dead now”, because the very assessment of if the guy is “bad” or not…. I dont trust the vast majority of humanity with that kind of decision.
Basically, human beings, at very least in terms of self-defense, aren’t qualified to make their own decisions, sorry to say. I know that sounds extreme, but I’m running out of other ways to perceive this whole thing. Humans are mostly idiots, and most of us scarily don’t KNOW that we’re idiots, and that’s simply a recipe for disaster.
@WhiteSteve Agreed. Although a bit cynical, what you say is spot on in many ways in my opinion. You should consider having your own radio talk show.
Probably said enough already, haha, but just to tie it back into drones…. I’m willing to give a little grace here and say “listen, old timer…it’s a new world, and part of that new world is drones. Most of them will be for functional purposes, some will be private devices. Either way, the threat they pose is never enough to fucking SHOOT it, because we can’t have stray bullets all over the place. If it’s a drone from a foreign government, you’re dead, bro, don’t even bother. That kind of drone will kill you before you even know it’s there, so put your little.45 down, Charles Bronson😂😂😂
Also, I gotta say…. using the George Floyd “I can’t breathe” line while being arrested tells me absolutely everything I need to know about this guy’s personal character, so he can get bent as far as I’m concerned. Asshole.
* just tossing the keys to a guy who just chugged a bottle of VODKA
Worst autocorrect ever, blew my whole analogy, lmfao
No. You are not going to supervise my Constitutional rights.
@WhiteSteve look at you, cute and always insightful too. You sure you aren't single?
That other guy really really wants to shoot somebody I think 😂
@mandyfire98 I mean, I’m technically temporarily available “for rent”…🤔😂
It’s T. H. U. G. L. I. F. E. out here in these mean streets, lmao
For rent you say? 👀
Might have to gather my Christmas money.
@mandyfire98 I think there’s still a Groupon deal through the end of the month
I'll take it
@mandyfire98 SOLD, to the pretty dancin’ lady in the back
Damn that was easy lol
No, although it is cool to think it would be fun, the type of drones that we are seeing in NJ are as big as a small car. If it got shot down it could land on somebody and result in injury or death. Trigger happy people might mistake a drone with a light plane or helicopter.
Well I understand the legal bit is a big NO, however as this has been allover the news this past week when I saw my dad yesterday that conversation came up while we were golfing and his remark "Don't care what the law say's if one starts flying over my property I'll shoot the damn thing down! My husband agreed with him as to I. It's been a few years ago, but I remember a case in our area where a teen was arrested for using his drone with camera to take video's peeking into bedroom windows of women and a teenage girl in his case naked. Do not remember what happened to him after arrest, down here likely nothing.
I'm sure most of what this guy was charged with was about him discharging a firearm in city limits, and THEN damaging private property.
I don't see why anyone would want to shoot a drone down. The police have begun using drones to help with crime. Others monitor traffic on main arteries.
I suppose there could be some busybody who's using a drone to spy on people. And I'm guessing there will have to be drone licenses sooner than later, so any drone flying is registered and not up to no good. But assuming one flying about IS up to no good just seems paranoid.
Opinion
29Opinion
Some interesting aspects to this question.
Even though you have a freehold title it doesn't mean you own the airspace above or the minerals below your house.
In my locale I only own as far up as is necessary for ordinary use and enjoyment. That might be as low the max height of a building allowed on the site. Planes are free to flyover because they would be too high up to bother individuals.
The 75 feet that the drone was at would be 7 stories and I doubt I would have a basis for objecting or claiming trespass. We can be pretty sure this will vary a lot across jurisprudences.
Quite clearly the drone was interfering with his quiet enjoyment of his property and equally the drone was loitering if he could go get his gun and come back to shoot it.
So that raises that the drone was surveilling him. They had to have identified him as the drone killer from a camera on the drone. If a drone is surveilling then I think it is quite reasonable that a person takes proactive steps to rectify the nuisance.
My jury verdict would be he should not have discharge the gun in a populated area so guilty to the criminal charge. Not guilty for property damage to Walmart's drone so long as he returns the carcass of the dead drone to Walmart. Guilty for Walmart surveilling him with as big a financial penalty as possible. Most places would have legislation on illegal surveillance
I am not sure about all of this fear with drones. Some people fly them as a hobby to get aerial videos just for fun. I like photography and I am considering getting one. If someone is flying a drone over someone's back yard watching ladies nude sunbathe by a pool, than in that case it could be considered to be an invasion of privacy and that is different.
Now all this going on in New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast? I don't know what is going on up there and time will tell. I suspect a lot of it is rumor and speculation.
I'd say the only time it'd be appropriate is if the Drone is consistently flying over your property and/or it looks like it's spying on/watching you, looking in your windows/house or surveying your property.
Then at that point yeah I'd say it's appropriate.
Personally I hate drones I don't like the idea of people being able to fly a drone over the place where I live and watching me or looking into our house, etc. And they are honestly just annoying. Plus I am a very, very private person.
No it's not and it should not, unless you are the American executive branch (so police or military) and you have intel that makes "shooting down a particular drone" necessary for public or national safety. If you're just a regular average joe, how do you know, that you're not just shooting another average joes private property? Also consider that while shooting a drone, you may hit the battery and if you hit the battery, it will burn quite violently or quite some time. So you might actually cause a big fire doing so cause the burning drone may fall on someones house or some dry forest land. So i can only recommend not to shoot at drones. That's insanely stupid.
It's illegal to shoot down a drone even if it's flying over your property.
But with the shenanigans going on in the federal government right now it really tests the limits of personal freedom.
The federal government's official position to the invasion of drones that is going on right now is that they have no idea what it is but that we shouldn't worry about it it's not a threat.
With a response like that, you are obviously on your own and if I were on a jury I would not vote to find anyone who shoots a drone down flying over their property guilty. It is an outrageous response by the government that we must not tolerate. If they cannot protect us we will have no choice but to protect ourselves.
And to the Democrats who want to take away our right to defend ourselves, screw you!
These drones (the unknown flyers) are allegedly the size of cars flying around and shooting one of these drones down can injure someone, kill someone, damage property, etc.
SECONDLY, Let’s say it was a delivery drone or something it still could hurt, kill, and damage so please don’t result to violence.
DO Think smarter, NOT ‘trigger happy’.
*54% Said YES, this is incredibly dangerous….
I have no problem with people shooting down drones over their own property if that drone was focused on their property without permission. But the problem is it's very hard to shoot a drone with a firearm and a stray bullet could kill someone so it's not advised. But if you had the right tool to shoot one down with, sure.
Sometimes the laws are wrong... in those cases men who have balls do what is morally right.
It depends on the circumstances, like where the drone is, what it's doing, and what is being used to shoot it down. Skynet rounds from a 12 gauge shotgun work pretty well against quad copters provided they're in range, and don't pose the same hazards as bullets or shot.
I'd say it's definitely not ok to shoot at them with a pistol or rifle, or in a crowded neighborhood.
We shot one down for disrupting a family event after its owner disregarded several warnings.
Pretty sure it's illegal, and federal law at that since the FAA regulates airspace.
But I think it should be illegal for those drones to fly over peoples' properties. As they become more common it will be more of a problem. I don't want a bunch of damn drones flying over my property all the time.
I think it's OK to shoot them down, but the law doesn't agree with me.
I can see the temptation but there's a risk it could crash on some one. There's also the issue of how realistic it is for delivery drones to completely avoid flying over private property.
However I do think if a drone is being used to harrass you or survey your property for a robbery then it's fair game.
How can you tell why the drone is flying over your home? It should be up to the drone operators to obtain permission before flying over private property below a given altitude.
From every single house? Not realistic
We have these laws in place for commercial and private aircraft. There are minimum altitudes set. A homeowner should be allowed to NOT be harassed and have privacy invaded by some jackass with a drone.
I agree with the last part but we need to make exceptions for commercial or military drones. Technically speaking the whole of my country is a low fly zone but thankfully you don't see Boeing 747s skimming the roof tops
Why should "commercial or military " drones be able to violate your privacy at will?
It is against federal law. The penalty for violating this law is a fine and/or imprisonment of up to 20 years. State and local laws cannot override federal laws. That means there is no state or municipality in the country where it is legal to shoot at a drone.
Some asshole was popping shots at drones in Jersey on 12/14 or 15 at night. What an asshole! What he was shooting at could have been a small aircraft or a jetliner. What would they have to say if he hit the craft and killed a passenger or caused damage to a craft causing it to crash with loss of life? I am sorry I did not know it was a plane. ASSHOLES ENGAGE YOUR BRAIN BEFORE YOU SHOOT. I am sorry just won't cut it.
Only if it's doing something illegal or immediately threatening (which includes trespassing such as flying over your home carrying an unknown package). Isn't Florida one of the stand ur ground states?
Well I have no idea why our government is shooting down these “mystery drones” which are very likely from hostile countries. We can shoot them down over water too and it will be safer.
*is not shooting things down. I also do NOT believe a “hobbyist” is doing this for sh*ts and giggles. These are big military grade drones. Some are as big as SUVs.
It will only be ok to shoot down a drone if you use a surface to air missile.
If it is in your airspace sure, but if it's far above your house and trees, then it's not on your property
I'd have to say no. Also, not a good idea to be shooting in the air at one, you could hurt someone. It's illegal to discharge a firearm within a city and most towns, anyways.
Sorry, but the temptation for an American to shoot, is just too great.
Cops should monitor deliveries and anything else they should shoot down.
u It not okay if there are resrictions on how close a drone can come to your property.
That ain’t your shit. We are trying to progress to a better, technologically advanced future that means leaving drones alone.
I'm not a lawyer, but I guess if the drone is shooting at you or destroying your property then it's okay to shoot it short of that. I don't think it's okay to shoot at anything including the drone.
I guess B. If it's on your property then yes. If it's in public airspace then no. Government owns/ regulates 500' and up. Citizens own ~100ft up. Keep your drone in the gray zone and pray.
Don't be stupid.
You can't shoot out an ambulance on the street driving past your property as it's public access. The air is similarly public access, and drone operators have a licence for it.
If it's over my property then yes!,,,
Although I live near an airport and they not allowed in my area,,,
It shouldn't be legal to discharge a forearm in a populated area. But it should also be illegal to fly a drone over another person's private property.
It's currently legal to fly these drones but it shouldn't be.
It's a federal offense evidently. Shooting anything out of the sky.
I believe it's trespassing unless the drone was really high. So the guy had a right
If one ever hovered over our property, then its gonna get shot down with a.12 gauge shotgun.
I hate the idea of random drones flying over anyone's property anytime.
Lol, in the US its semi alright to shoot people. 🤣 It's the norm to shoot just because.
Nope. Criminal damage, lock him up
Don't get caught.
I never find anything wrong to be right
Wow very original and insightful thank you
Just ignore the drone it could be a police drone
Only in hillbilly states.
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