Posted on 12/19/2012 7:03:56 PM PST by Seizethecarp
Less than a month ago, rumors that celebrity news and gossip website TMZ was interested in obtaining a paparazzi drone prompted privacy concerns and public debate about the appropriate personal and commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Now, a new online video poses a more troubling question: What if civilian drones are equipped to shoot more than just pictures?
Titled Citizen Drone Warfare and posted to YouTube last week by an anonymous man calling himself Milo Danger, the video shows a hobbyist drone equipped with a custom-mounted paintball pistol flying over a grassy field and peppering human-shaped shooting-range targets with pellets.
Following an attack pass by the drone, one of the targets sports three large red blotches on its head and neck area.
I wanted to show an inevitability of what I think will happen with these drones, said Milo, who lives on the West Coast and spoke to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity. Im not advocating bad activities. But I wanted to raise some of the ethical issues we need to think about with this new technology.
Though Federal Aviation Administration regulations do not explicitly mention the use of firearms on drones, they do prohibit any type of recreational flying or dropping objects from aircraft that endanger life or property.
DIYDrones.com, a drone hobbyist website and online community that counts defense and aerospace engineers among its 32,000 members and averages more than 1.5 million page views a month, discourages using or modifying drones for any uses that are potentially illegal or intended to do harm.
Weve banned the weaponized use of drones, said Chris Anderson, the sites founder. So in our community, the reaction to this video is dismay.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I just posted on FR the other day my concern that the first US citizen casualty on US soil from a drone attack would not be from law enforcement but from terrorists, criminals, or jealous lovers!
Hobbyist drones vs. jackboot drones!
Don’t worry about your fellow citizens, worry about your government.
/johnny
As a major league tinkerer, part of me says, ‘cool idea’. Then another side of me says, ‘very cool idea’.
I worry about both.
The people who are flying these don’t seek air clearance before doing so (and I’ve even heard this complaint lodged against law enforcement officers who want to use them to monitor traffic and neighborhoods).
Pro'lly China. I saw them for sale at an electronics store as a Christmas gift idea.
Ping. You guys need to see this.
Nothing unexpected. Just more obvious every day where things are headed.
Pull!
Is a hobbyist drone just a radio-controlled airplane? Like an AR-15 is now a combat weapon?
A mini-drone helicopter or fixed wing can also kill with kinetic force alone...if targeted at the right place. No onboard projectile or bomb needed! (see my tag line)
Drones are a whole different critter.
Some stuff overlaps.
Either way, I just dug out a box of 12 ga. #8 shot to have handy. You never can tell when you might want it. ;)
/johnny
A psychopath with a heavy stamp collectors book can kill... So can the gardener with his rake and hoe... We need to get serious about all of this - citizens should be confined to their rooms until Mommy - oops - I mean the State - tells them it's safe to sit in the living room...
Just another scare of the week to send the weak minded over the edge. How long have we had large scale remote control aircraft available to hobbyists? What about this is beyond the average engineering student or experienced hobbyist? Why not run a story about someone placing a good sized bomb in a RC plane for a poor mans cruise missile? Woulda, coulda, shoulda! Don’t we have enough real threats to worry about without this nonsense?
Where is the video”
I was just discussing with someone you can now buy RC drones off the shelf that look like dragonfly’s.
Back in the 1980’s the Greaseman on Wash DC’s FM 101.1 had a very funny bit about putting a .22 on a RC plane he painted black and used it to shoot down RC hobbyist’s planes that were keeping him up when he was trying to sleep during his work at a station where he worked nights.
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