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The question is so common that it has its own section in the FAA’s drone FAQ > Can you shoot down drones above your property? > It’s illegal under federal law
by thih9 1y ago
The question is so common that it has its own section in the FAA’s drone FAQ
> Can you shoot down drones above your property?
> It’s illegal under federal law to shoot at an aircraft. A private citizen shooting at any aircraft – including unmanned aircraft – poses a significant safety hazard. An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air. Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in a civil penalty from the FAA and/or criminal charges from federal, state or local law enforcement.
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/what-know-about-drones https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/what-know-about-drones
- zelphirkalt 1y agoWell,not my country, but I think it is quite a silly and too general rule: What if 10 neighbors collude and start flying drones over my garden and house, only a few meters above ground or my roof, 24/7? What if one of their drones crashes without my doing and hurts _me_? So the actual rules need to be more nuanced than this, to prevent people doing crazy shit with their tech gadgets hurting others. They cannot be given free reign in that matter.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> What if 10 neighbors collude and start flying drones over my garden and house, only a few meters above ground or my roof, 24/7? What if your neighbours climb on your roof and start banging on your windows at night?
- s1artibartfast 1y agoI'm not categorically opposed to the idea of shooting them.
- JumpCrisscross 1y agoAnd I'd argue they deserved it. (I'd also expect you to get charged.)
- flir 1y agoWell.... maybe just one. Pour encourager les autres and all that.
- zelphirkalt 1y agoIf you followed the other comments on this post, you will probably realize, that this is about the airspace above ones house. So a neighbor climbing onto my roof is a completely different matter.
- bdangubic 1y agowhat if neighbour is hovering 1 foot above the roof in a small homemade hot air balloon? :)
- incompatible 1y agoSounds tricky, but they could use a cherry-picker parked in their yard, and swing the boom out over your house. It's only an air-space violation.
- fuzztester 1y agokindly don't airsplit.
- metaphor 1y ago> What if your neighbours climb on your roof and start banging on your windows at night? Worth noting that in the US, castle law[1] is ardently defended and not something to be tested by FAFO. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine
- unwind 1y agoHere, "FAFO" = fsck around, find out. Parent's point is that you should not apply that methodology in order to test the applicability of castle law in the US, since you might end up dead.
- anigbrowl 1y agoIn many jurisdictions, GP would be within their rights to shoot at them in that case. Re the FAA rules, there's a clear difference between planes or helicopters going overhead at safe and relatively high altitudes* and drones flying at much lower ones. Occasional passes from hobby or semi-pro drones used by photographers are a minor irritation, but if drone delivery became a regular thing I can see how frequent low altitude flybys would quickly become maddening. relying on existing law for new circumstances generally yields poor results. * I live quite near a hospital with a helipad so about once a month I have to deal with a helicopter coming under 100 feet (~35m) and making the walls shake.
- fc417fc802 1y ago> relying on existing law for new circumstances generally yields poor results. I imagine it will remain ambiguous until a sufficiently public stunt forces the issue all the way up to SCOTUS and they determine a concrete minimum distance that must be maintained from structures.
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- softg 1y agoat that point you could just buy cheap drones yourself and ram those into your neighbor's (oops)
- zelphirkalt 1y agoDoesn't really sound like a viable solution, as the 10 neighbors have on average 10 times the amount of cash to throw at it.
- incompatible 1y agoI really think this is only a small step from neighbors firebombing each other's homes, and all ending up homeless or in prison.
- Volundr 1y ago> What if 10 neighbors collude and start flying drones over my garden and house, only a few meters above ground or my roof, 24/7? What if one of their drones crashes without my doing and hurts _me_? Are you under the impression that either of these things is legal, and that gunplay is your only recourse?
- john-h-k 1y agoThe legal system is when you get to shoot at things that break the law
- lmm 1y ago> gunplay is your only recourse? Having tried to get the authorities to deal with a harassing neighbour even in a big city, that sounds extremely plausible.
- harimau777 1y agoWhat's the other recourse? Unless you are rich, cops don't care.
- happyopossum 1y agoElect new leaders in your city who will change that. It’s not like that everywhere, and you’re playing in to the hand of the corrupt to pretend otherwise.
- HaZeust 1y agoPlaying in the hands of the corrupt to remind others of their innate, individualist rights to firearms to protect their lives and property when police aren't a trusted recourse? Playing in the hands of the corrupt is to shame others for not relying on a fundamentally unreliable police force, in fact.
- Tadpole9181 1y agoGuess we can all look forward to the first few cases of people dying from bullets falling after missing an Amazon drone. It's your right to fatally endanger everyone in a 2 mile radius of your house for a minor inconvenience after all.
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- ryandrake 1y ago> What if 10 neighbors collude and start flying drones over my garden and house, only a few meters above ground or my roof There are more appropriate legal avenues one can use to curtail harassment, besides blasting away with a firearm. > What if one of their drones crashes without my doing and hurts _me_? You can step away and avoid it, or swat it away with a baseball bat, and/or if it hits you, you can sue them for property damage and injury. None of these scenarios require you to fire a deadly weapon into the air. Honestly, this thread is scary--it reads like a bunch of people yearning to shoot their guns at something and trying desperately to find a wild scenario to justify it.
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- fc417fc802 1y agoAt what height above your property does that come into effect though? According to US v. Causby the FAA only holds jurisdiction above the "minimum safe altitude". Anything below that is your private property. Naturally the FAA wouldn't be inclined to advertise such lines of thought.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- thih9 1y agoWikipedia says: "Currently, some aircraft, such as helicopters, balloons, and ultralights have no minimum safe altitudes."[1]. I don't know if drone counts as one of them, but I'm not aware of a specific number being listed as a minimum safe altitude for a drone either. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Causby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Causby
- fc417fc802 1y agoRight but presumably that's a hole in the existing precedent that the court needs to address. I'm reasonably certain that if my neighbor intentionally maneuvers a cherry picker 5 feet over my roof they are trespassing. I can't imagine that changing from a bucket on an arm to a balloon will change that (assuming there's intent). So at what point does it change from "my property" to "public airspace above my property"? 5 ft? 20 ft? 100 ft? AFAIK we don't currently have a definitive answer. Personally I lean towards the effective range of a 12 gauge.
- IAmBroom 1y agoThe FAA doesn't rule on cherry pickers, so that isn't a valid analogy. Drone regulations are solidly established. The law isn't determined by uninformed commenters on a web forum. And "the effective range of a 12 gauge" will result in jail time. I worked for an autonomous drone company that had a price point around $30,000; destroying one of those could be felony-level vandalism.
- potbelly83 1y agoYeah, yeah, this is what every single drone hobbyist parrots on about when asked this question. However, when was the last time someone was actually charged and convicted (criminal not civil) for shooting down a drone flying over their property.
- Tadpole9181 1y agoWhen the drones destroyed go from $200 to $20,000 or when the falling drone kills someone, damages a vehicle, or causes a fire, an example will be set. Right now it's uncommon and largely handled by civil courts.
- snypher 1y agoThat guy in Florida is doing 4 years in the fed for shooting down a police drone last year.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]