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I realize there are other ways to disable or destroy a drone and that you're curious about the legalities. But if you did literally shoot a drone, you'd probabl

I realize there are other ways to disable or destroy a drone and that you're curious about the legalities. But if you did literally shoot a drone, you'd probably go to jail. If you miss you'll send a bullet miles away, endangering others. If you hit the drone, you'll rain shrapnel on the anyone below. Even then, I doubt a hit would disappate the bullet's kinetic energy safely.

JoeAltmaier 14y ago
A bullet expends its kinetic energy via air friction. Unless it richochets off the drone, it'll fall harmlessly some miles away.
- AngryParsley 14y ago
  Only if the trajectory is almost vertical and the bullet is a small caliber. People get killed by celebratory gunfire all the time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
  - JoeAltmaier 14y ago
    Bullets fired at any verticle angle will fall 'ballistically' which is a fore-shortened sort-of-parabolic curve due to air friction. If the angle is large, then the fall is essentially at terminal velocity. A shot at a drone is likely to be at a large angle. The reports of 'celebratory gunfire' deaths are all necessarily speculative - the angle of the shot is impossible to measure. We can resort to physics to get a better answer than that derived from headlines.
- asynchronous13 14y ago
  Harmlessly? I know this is off topic, but.... A close friend of mine was killed by a stray bullet this year at a 4th of July celebration. She was in a crowd of thousands of people gathered to watch some local fireworks. The shooter was miles away and probably has no idea that they murdered someone. http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/07/student_shot_at_fireworks_show_died_next_morning http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/07/student_shot_...
  - notdrunkatall 14y ago
    How horrifyingly random.
  - JoeAltmaier 14y ago
    I'm so sorry for your loss.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
See that is the nice thing about shotguns, they spray a pattern of pellets, lethal out to 50 maybe 60 yards and harmless to people down range. I've been duck hunting in fields where the next blind over was close enough to see the pellets land in the water between us. The other interesting question which has yet to be answered is whether laser damage to video sensors in an unmanned vehicle in the landowner's "airspace" is actionable. The final interesting question is whether or not its actionable if your R/C plane that you were flying around on your land and it happened to run into a drone and both fell out of the sky is a problem for you or for them. (I'd start that one off by suing them to replace your airplane) I don't doubt though that all of these will be tested in court though.

JoeAltmaier 14y ago

A bullet expends its kinetic energy via air friction. Unless it richochets off the drone, it'll fall harmlessly some miles away.

AngryParsley 14y ago
Only if the trajectory is almost vertical and the bullet is a small caliber. People get killed by celebratory gunfire all the time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
- JoeAltmaier 14y ago
  Bullets fired at any verticle angle will fall 'ballistically' which is a fore-shortened sort-of-parabolic curve due to air friction. If the angle is large, then the fall is essentially at terminal velocity. A shot at a drone is likely to be at a large angle. The reports of 'celebratory gunfire' deaths are all necessarily speculative - the angle of the shot is impossible to measure. We can resort to physics to get a better answer than that derived from headlines.
asynchronous13 14y ago
Harmlessly? I know this is off topic, but.... A close friend of mine was killed by a stray bullet this year at a 4th of July celebration. She was in a crowd of thousands of people gathered to watch some local fireworks. The shooter was miles away and probably has no idea that they murdered someone. http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/07/student_shot_at_fireworks_show_died_next_morning http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2012/07/student_shot_...
- notdrunkatall 14y ago
  How horrifyingly random.
- JoeAltmaier 14y ago
  I'm so sorry for your loss.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

See that is the nice thing about shotguns, they spray a pattern of pellets, lethal out to 50 maybe 60 yards and harmless to people down range. I've been duck hunting in fields where the next blind over was close enough to see the pellets land in the water between us. The other interesting question which has yet to be answered is whether laser damage to video sensors in an unmanned vehicle in the landowner's "airspace" is actionable. The final interesting question is whether or not its actionable if your R/C plane that you were flying around on your land and it happened to run into a drone and both fell out of the sky is a problem for you or for them. (I'd start that one off by suing them to replace your airplane) I don't doubt though that all of these will be tested in court though.