Ralphie’s mom was only worried about the kid putting his eye out. She never dreamed he’d be able to chase the Bumpus’s dogs down the street, thwacking them with paintball markers. Let alone peeping through Mrs. Schwartz’s bathroom window, all from the comfort of his room. But technology marches on and it won’t be long before a magnificent young man can have his very own flying machine, one that also sends back video and shoots, well, whatever . . .
As “Milo Danger” says in the video, “considering the popularity of these DIY devices, it seems inevitable that they’re going to be used in ways the inventors and manufacturers could never have imagined.” Unless, of course, they have.
Drones have already moved from the battlefield to the homefront. It won’t take long before that paintball pistol is replaced by a P99. We can hear the arguments now: civvy drone use would be just another safeguard against tyranny. Our guns against theirs – our hovering shooters against theirs. You down with that? [h/t reason.com]
I saw a drone, with cameras, for sale at barnes & nobles the other day for about $200. I was so so so tempted. If it had a paint gun I wouldn’t have hesitated! 🙂
Looks like drone defense is going to be another SHTF consideration.
The other thought I had was that police drones or unmanned helos should not every cost a department, and taxpayers be extension, several hundred thousand dollars.
Since we already have manned helicopters and bomb robots, LEOs theoretically shouldn’t have much use for these.
Drones don’t have pension plans. :p
But they do have maintanence plans…
You would think that, but the government is already granting permission to multiple police depts around the country to use drones. Here in WA, there was a pretty big public outcry when Seattle PD announced it would be using drones… people are concerned that there aren’t enough safeguards / rules in place for proper usage. What’s to stop five-o from doing a little bit of unwanted, unwarranted surveillance?
since the video feed is on-going and recorded the entire flight of a Po-Po Drone can be concidered survailance
Soon there will be a ‘Drone Wars’ TV show. In real life there will be urban street battles between gangs using drones, and between Law Enforcement and whomever. Scout/spy drones will be the size of a fly and battle drones larger. The knowledge and skills to build a drone will spread and twelve year olds will assemble hunter-killer drones in their parents’ basements. Lastly, the B-ATF-E will add on a ‘D’ for Drone control to their name making its name BATFED.
+100.
Yep I can see it now!! Survivor: The Drone Island Episode. Would love to have one of these just to play with and maybe, if i’m at home alone, use it to chase the cat’s with. Done got in trouble from the girls for aggravating her kittens with a laser pointer in the living room.
Probably didn’t help when I was shining it across the tile floor in the kitchen, kind of slippery for the cat’s!!!
But in my defense the cat’s loved it!! They told me so!!!
😉
Hey man, we can each buy a drone and have an aerial dog fight or we can track down Robert and Dan, and then buzz their houses.
If I lived closer to the Playboy mansion I’d want one of those with the camera.
We can hear the arguments now: civvy drone use would be just another safeguard against tyranny. Our guns against theirs – our hovering shooters against their. You down with that?
Sorry I don’t have time to dig up the citations, but I have already seen this mentioned by some of the “Homeland Security” nutjobs. The camera equipped little helos being used to take some snaps of celebs was the gateway to open the talk of severely restricting everything about RC (private) ownership by us non-government folks.
I predict an increase in the sales of 3 1/2 chambered 12 gauges for drone defense!
For a fun way to interact with your friendly local police drones, consider the British “barrage balloons” (see Wikipedia) used over their cities in WWII. These were large balloons tethered with steel cables, at heights designed to interfere with low-level bombers.
Now think about several surplus weather balloons, tethered to various places around your home with thin metal clothesline cable or 80-lb test fishing monofilament. With happy cartoon figures painted on them, to show that you are just trying to brighten up your neighborhood. And they are floating maybe 100 feet over your house, so they won’t interfere with any legal, manned aircraft. “Ooops, forgot to take those down after the kid’s birthday party.”
Wonder how long it would take for the local PD to get a ban on balloons?
Then you could go to an armed interceptor drone, with Red Baron markings.
they won’t bother; the drones the cops and gov use don’t need to get down to 100 ft., which is what makes them so terrifying, they can hit you from so high up that you can’t even see them.
Usa will be a nazist hell.
I have been thinking of one of these for battlefield survailance
I can’t understand why the Americans are in Afghanistan. Is it oil.., a strgteaic positon in the vicinity of their rivals China and Russia or is it a hatred towards the religion of muslims or, mayby all three options? Or is the American government really concerned about the welfare of the Afghan people?It is general knowledge that most of the Afghans don’t want foreign (American) troops on their soil.I think that the rulers of the USA had better look to the problems in their own country, like homelessness, crime rates, discrimination and the general decline into moral bankruptcy.
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