Are Armed Drones Legal?
If you haven’t seen it yet, a college student has managed to outfit a drone with a gun and can remotely trigger the weapon repeatedly. The drone remains level and handles the kickback rather well. The fact that this can be done by anyone surely opens up a new set of problems for law enforcement and the FAA. Could you imagine trying to solve a crime in which the shooter was a flying robot? But let’s step back, is the act of strapping a gun to the drone even legal in the first place. This ABC News report seems to imply that it is not.
Two FAA laws could be in play in this scenario “Releasing something from a civilian aircraft”, and “Arming a civilian aircraft.” But not everyone feels that it should be illegal, apparently Dan Terzian and Duane Morris believe in The Right To Bear (Robotic) Arms. So how do you feel? Should the 2nd Amendment apply to drones? It’s a big no from my point of view, but maybe that’s because I don’t want to see one flying by my window one day if I tick off my neighbor.
