Posted on 09/01/2016 9:57:26 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
"It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens."
A woman in Virginia shot down a drone flying near her property in June of this year. It's at least the third time this has happened in the U.S., with previous incidents in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Originally reported in the local Fauquier Times and subsequently covered by Ars Technica, the shooter was Jennifer Youngman, a neighbor to actor and director Robert Duvall. She had been cleaning her shotguns on the porch when two men stopped on a nearby road and started flying a drone around the general vicinity. Youngman left the drone alone while it flew around nearby fields, but prepared to take it down and ultimately did when it flew over her land.
As she told Ars Technica:
I loaded my shotgun and took the safety off, and this thing came flying over my trees. I don't know if they lost command or if they didn't have good command, but the wind had picked up. It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens.
Shooting down drones is a bit of a legal gray area in the United States at the moment. Opponents point out that, according to FAA classifications, drones are technical aircraft and interfering with the flight of one is a federal crime. So far no shooters have been prosecuted on the federal level. In fact other drone shooters, like William Merideth, have ultimately been cleared of all charges, though the owner of that drone is still pursuing a civil suit for $1,500 in damages.
To her credit, Youngman told Ars Technica that she went about shooting down the drone with 7.5 birdshot, which is both the most effective way to take a drone out of the sky, but also ensures that the projectiles won't do any harm on the way down. The drone, however, still can. Youngman said the crash left "two punctures in [her] lawn tractor."
The best way to avoid that might be to not shoot down the thing down in the first place.
Regarding the Commerce Clause (1.8.3), regardless what FDR’s state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices wanted everybody to think about those powers, note that a previous generation of state sovereignty-respecting justices had clarified that the states have never expressly constitutionally delegated to the feds the specific power to regulate INTRAatate commerce.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
But since patriots have not heeded the warnings of Madison and Jefferson, patriots asleep at the wheel for several generations with respect to the corrupt feds unconstitutionally expanding its powers, particularly where unconstitutional federal interference in INTRAstate commerce is concerned, patriots actually have a big mess to clean up concerning unconstitutionally big federal government imo.
Patriots would probably find many federal commerce laws that are based on the politically correct interpretation of that clause by FDR’s activist justices. Such laws should either be removed from the books, or the states possibly appropriately amending the Constitution after the fact.
Why is she still going outside when she knows what time it’s there and obviously spying on her?
That is the one posted with the article. I’m guessing the REAL photo is in pieces!
A German 88 would certainly do the job on a drone.
Yes, the stealth aspect is appealing. Something powerful but nearly silent, like a .25 caliber Benjamin Marauder would probably be a good choice. Eight-shot magazine, too.
People get excited about ‘mini guns’...they haven’t seen the Vulcan.
FAA falls nicely under the Commerce Clause.
Post Roads may actually be better. (The original air routes were actually air mail routes, and a lot of mail still goes by plane.)
http://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/. (The original air routes were actually air mail routes, and a lot of mail still goes by plane.)
Shoe lace. 2 golf balls. Drill.
Drill holes through the balls, tie them together with the shoe lace.
Get it swirling and let it go. It will fowl the props and bring down the drone.
Ebay.
Nice. Thanks. I love etymology.
I seem to recall that there was a punk band in the 1980s or ‘90s called Smithereens.
Smithereen? Isn’t that a town in Ireland?
If she were smart, she’d move underground. :)
A friend in the biz says we will be hero's the day we save a kid walking away from a day car in the woods or a Senior with Alzheimer's that does the same. A friend who is volunteer fire on one of the coast tells me they want to look into it as an alternative to sending crews out for missing boats in a storm to verify the missing souls before they risk man and craft. Again they will be hero's.
However what the FAA did to the model-airplane guys as they lumped them in with UAV's and when back on their word when it comes to registration was dirty pool IMHO and uncalled for, shame on them.
The animals get fed every day at a certain time. If it becomes a nuisance, she will shoot it down...............
Thank you, that's something everyone should know...........
You can get a hell of a lot better look with an orange vest and a clipboard...
Not on my property.
The animals can wait an hour or eat an hour earlier. They don’t have clocks. What do they do in daylight savings time?
Wave at it and point to her gun. If it comes back, shoot it to smithereens.
Then you are a hell of a lot more proactive/vigilant or live in middle of nowhere. I’ve had law enforcement leave me alone on their facilities at closing time with “close the gate when you leave!” Having never asked me for an ID. In a neighborhood a safety vest and a clipboard would probably get you INSIDE 60+ % of the residences...
I am vigilant, our property is hilly and densely overgrown and I don’t answer the door to anyone I don’t know.
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