Perhaps the most insidious use of a drone yet:
Amanda Ripley, interviewed in the above video by Ross, has a feature on drones in the latest issue—the kind of drones that are quickly proliferating in your neighborhoods, backyards, prison yards, and sports stadiums, not the terrorist kill zones we discussed recently. A reader writes:
The closest analogy to a drone is a gun. They are a tool that is well suited to a certain type of offense-oriented use, and hobbyists tend to like playing with them. You can make using a drone in a particular way illegal, but the people who do Really Bad Things with them are going to ignore those laws because they are just so gosh darn useful for Really Bad Things.
I think that, as we lack a Constitutional right to bear drones, they will be outlawed for non-official use, or perhaps very expensive heavily regulated commercial use with integration into Air Traffic Control systems. All it’s going to take is a shotgun firing drone and a crowd full of people:
Another reader also looks ahead:
Anti-drone weapons are just going to get better. Automated drone hunter-killers, camera-destroying lasers, net guns, glue guns, RF scramblers—it’s all coming. So are stealth drones designed specifically to counteract those defenses. It will be interesting to see how this particular arms race plays out.
One reader’s weapon of choice:
Image may be NSFW.Personally, I prefer a stone lobbed at the things.
It has all the wonderful human elements—the ageless skill of the throw, the glorious flight of the projectile, the wonderful sound of hard rock smashing against hideous plastic, and the invigorating scream of the drone operator as they watch their precious toy plummet to the ground in flames!
Some prefer a shotgun, a .22, or an RPG-7 to devastate these ridiculous machines, but the stone has all those personal, down-to-earth qualities. Best of all, it’s free, non-polluting, and environmentally sustainable!
Please visit my Facebook page, Throw Stones at Drones.
Clik here to view.