Deer Trail, Colorado (population 600 or so) is to vote on a local ordinance that would allow drone hunting licenses and bounties for shooting down UAVs, according to ABC affiliate KMGH-TV.
Those with a valid drone hunting license will be rewarded US$100 if they present "identifiable parts" of UAVs "known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government," the draft ordinance states.
"We do not want drones in town," local Phillip Steel, who came up with the draft, tells KMGH-TV. "They fly in town, they get shot down."
If passed, the ordinance would see one-year drone hunting licenses sell for $25, and there's talk of a novelty drone-hunting festival to boost tourism.
To Steel it's a serious issue, however. "This is a very symbolic ordinance. Basically, I do not believe in the idea of a surveillance society, and I believe we are heading that way."
The town board is set to vote on the ordinance on Aug. 6.
See KMGH-TV's report for the full story.
Source: KMGH-TV
Offering "hunting licenses" encourages knuckleheads to shoot rifles in the air. That never ends well. Especially since they haven't any idea how to discriminate between a drone and some adventurous soul in an ultra-light.
While I think it is creepy to have a drone watching us, I doubt they are all used to spy on people. I can see drones being used in search and rescue. If one of these are shot down, the life or lives of those it was sent to look for is at risk.
I guess one could tell the home of a drone hunter by the nose cone and landing gear of a drone being on their wall their deer hunters have heads and hoofs of deer they hunted.
There are a lot of problems with this ordinance, but I like its style.
How many drones "known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government" are they expecting to be flown over their town of 600 people anyway?
You are talking about giving permission to anyone with weapons without having to call any centralized command for permission to fire on overhead aircraft. This will go well about the day Jennifer Lawrence lifts my restraining order and starts returning my phone calls.
That said if a town wanted to make dumping garbage on the side of the road illegal, they have that right. If the town wanted to pass a law that said anyone who removes trash from the side of the road would be rewarded, that would be legal. One could argue that the person is stealing the trash that belonged to someone else, but the law is the law.
Instead of considering a drone as an expensive government tool, consider it trash that some people put in the air. So removing that trash would be permitted if the town deemed it so.