CNN: Handgun-firing drone appears legal in video, but FAA, police probe further

[tshile]

See, once again the internet needs a sarcasm font, because when a Louisville Kentucky resident takes his shotgun and shoots down a drone in a subdivision is it really so far out of the realm of possibility that someone else might choose to follow suit with a pellet gun?

That's the thing about jokes, they should at the end of the day be funny, and or evident that humor was attempted.

 

Part of the joke was that the guy who did it got in trouble. Or might/will.

 

The drone irritates me, but I'm not so stupid as to think I can shoot it down and not get in trouble. There's any number of laws that violates where I live.

 

But regardless, I'd love to shoot the thing down when it's hovering over my deck in the evening.

 

Which reminds me, I need to go ask that guy to not do that anymore....

[Larry]

does how far a bullet will travel dictate how much i control?

I understand that that is where the "two mile limit" on territorial waters comes from. That was the range of shore guns.

[China]

Update:

 

Judge rules man had right to shoot down drone over his house

 

It was a case that gripped the nation. Or at least Kentucky.

 

Should it have temporarily escaped your pressured memory, William Merideth in July said he saw a drone flying above his property in Hillview, Kentucky.

 

He believed it was spying on his 16-year-old daughter who was sunbathing in the garden. So he took out his shotgun and blasted the drone out of the sky. He was arrested for wanton endangerment and criminal mischief.

 

Now a Kentucky court has declared Merideth an innocent man. Bullitt County District Court Judge Rebecca Ward on Monday dismissed all charges against Merideth, reported local TV station WDRB-TV.

 

The drone's owner, David Boggs, had produced flight data that insisted his machine had been flying higher than Merideth had claimed.

 

The judge, however, seems not a fan of big data. She's a woman of the people. She declared that two human witnesses saw the drone below the tree line. This evidence was, to her, conclusive. To her, this was an invasion of Merideth's privacy.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[AsburySkinsFan]

Update:

 

Judge rules man had right to shoot down drone over his house

 

It was a case that gripped the nation. Or at least Kentucky.

 

Should it have temporarily escaped your pressured memory, William Merideth in July said he saw a drone flying above his property in Hillview, Kentucky.

 

He believed it was spying on his 16-year-old daughter who was sunbathing in the garden. So he took out his shotgun and blasted the drone out of the sky. He was arrested for wanton endangerment and criminal mischief.

 

Now a Kentucky court has declared Merideth an innocent man. Bullitt County District Court Judge Rebecca Ward on Monday dismissed all charges against Merideth, reported local TV station WDRB-TV.

 

The drone's owner, David Boggs, had produced flight data that insisted his machine had been flying higher than Merideth had claimed.

 

The judge, however, seems not a fan of big data. She's a woman of the people. She declared that two human witnesses saw the drone below the tree line. This evidence was, to her, conclusive. To her, this was an invasion of Merideth's privacy.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Great, a judge who rejects actual evidence in favor of the people defending the guy who shoots his shotgun off in a subdivision.

Another win for 'Mericah

 

Seriously, I was talking with a woman the other day while waiting for my truck to be serviced. She was at a loss for our current culture, "We are in stupid mode."

Agreed 100%

[Bang]

At the same time.. electronic data produced by the defendant .. i don't know if i'd trust that at all.

 

~Bang 

[AsburySkinsFan]

At the same time.. electronic data produced by the defendant .. i don't know if i'd trust that at all.

 

~Bang 

Have you seen what type of data is produced?

The iPads show the actual flightpath, including altitude, location and direction the camera was facing.

This isn't just stuff you fabricate, especially since the reporter who brought this data to light stated that you could see the moment it was shot and how the quadcopter dropped to the ground.

 

So actual recorded forensic evidence disregarded in favor of an "eye-witness" who is defending a guy who went off half-****ed and fully loaded. I can't wait to see the next jackass who does this.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Congratulations America....we now live in a country where every personally owned drone must be registered with the government, but not all guns have to be.

Way to go!

 

Drone deaths to date: 0

2015 gun deaths 13,064

http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

[daveakl]

Congratulations America....we now live in a country where every personally owned drone must be registered with the government, but not all guns have to be.

Way to go!

Drone deaths to date: 0

2015 gun deaths 13,064

http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

To be fair, if a drone kills a person it doesn't brag about it on Facebook. The actual number could be way higher.

#droneninja

[Slateman]

Congratulations America....we now live in a country where every personally owned drone must be registered with the government, but not all guns have to be.

Way to go!

 

Drone deaths to date: 0

2015 gun deaths 13,064

http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

Uncle Sam has to get his piece.

[China]

Update:

 

Kentucky Judge Dismisses All Charges Against Man Who Shot Down Drone

 

Judge Rebecca Ward has cleared charges against William Merideth for destroying a drone which was hovering over his property with a shotgun, claiming the drone was an invasion of privacy, local TV station WDRB-TV reports.

 

“He had a right to shoot at this drone, and I’m gonna dismiss this charge,” said Ward.

 

Merideth was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment, along with criminal mischief in July for destroying a drone that was traveling below the tree line.

 

Merideth’s neighbors saw it too.”It was just hovering above our house and it stayed for a few moments and then she finally waved and it took off,” said neighbor Kim VanMeter.

 

VanMeter has a 16-year-old daughter who lays out at their pool. She says a drone hovering with a camera is creepy and weird.

 

William was happy with the Judge’s decision stating, “I was in my right to protect my family and my property.” He expressed the importance of his case against the use of drones to harass people, he went on to say “The next time something like this happens, they’re gonna refer to it,” and encouraged property owners to use common sense when making these decisions. “Now I don’t encourage people to just go out and start blasting stuff for no reason – but three times in one day, three times over the course of a year, six times total, over one property? That’s not right, that’s harassment.”

 

Drone owner David Boggs testified that flight data recorded provides a different story and that his drone was flying higher than Meredith claimed, however since multiple people witnessed the drone flying below the tree line, Ward decided it was an invasion of privacy.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Case of Drone-Mounted Flame Thrower May Test U.S. FAA Authority

 

The father and son who posted videos of drones firing a handgun and incinerating a Thanksgiving turkey with a flame-thrower can be questioned by aviation regulators, a U.S. judge ruled in a closely watched case that may determine the government’s ability to oversee unmanned aircraft.

 

The FAA is investigating whether the flights -- which became an internet phenomenon on YouTube -- may have violated aviation safety regulations.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Meyer dismissed the arguments of Austin and Bret Haughwout, who maintained that the Federal Aviation Administration had no legal authority over the small drones because they aren’t aircraft and the agency has no right to question them.

 

“I do not agree,” Meyer wrote in a decision issued on Monday. The judge said “it is plausible to believe that the Haughwouts’ devices fall within the definition of an ‘aircraft’ for the purposes of federal law.”

 

Whether the FAA will be able to successfully bring an enforcement case against the pair from Clinton, Connecticut, is a separate matter, the judge said. He laid out the eventual arguments in what may become a test case over the limits of the FAA’s authority over drones. The FAA argues that it controls the airspace down to the ground for purposes of overseeing drones, but Meyer questioned whether that is legitimate.

 

“No clause in the Constitution vests the federal government with a general police power over all of the air or all objects that leave the ground,” he wrote. He stopped short of issuing an opinion on that, saying: “This case does not yet require an answer to that question.”

 

The debate over where FAA’s authority begins and ends holds enormous potential impact over the burgeoning drone industry, said Rebecca Byers MacPherson, a lawyer at Jones Day in Washington who formerly worked as an FAA attorney.

 

The FAA has traditionally avoided regulating aircraft below 200 feet because airplanes and helicopters rarely fly that low except at airports, MacPherson said. Drones, which fly in those near-ground zones, have led the FAA to claim authority closer to the ground.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Koolblue13]

So, people can fly drones that can shoot you or burn your house to the ground and we're not sure if we should regulate that somehow?

 

What a time to be alive.

[Larry]

So, people can fly drones that can shoot you or burn your house to the ground and we're not sure if we should regulate that somehow?

 

What a time to be alive.

 

I suspect that the question is whether the federal government can regulate it. 

 

(Although, we sure seem to have interpreted the whole "interstate commerce" clause to be really really broad.  I mean, right now, we have the feds mandating things like seat belts in cars, or regulating commercial and general aviation, whether the car or plane ride is interstate or not.) 

[MisterPinstripe]

Even if the FAA cant regulate drones, they wouldnt be able to fly a drone around with a handgun or flamethrower on it outside of their property. That would fall under brandishing a weapon once off their property, so they still cant fly it around.