Remember Deer Trail, that small town in Colorado that considering giving drone-hunting licenses and award cash bounties to anyone who could prove they shot down a government UAV? The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the airways, has issued a response, which, unsurprisingly, amounts to “Uh, don’t do that, guys.”
“Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane,” the FAA statement read, pointing out that a drone “hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air.”
As far as Deer Trail: Phillip Steel, who drafted the proposal, has obtained 28 signatures on a petition, about 10 percent of the population (it really is a small town), meaning the local government is bound by Colorado law to consider Steel’s idea. We’ll see how that goes.
