Is it legal to shoot a drone?

[Ruark]

Here's a "modern times" question:

I'm sitting on my front porch or my wife is working on her tan in the back yard. Then I see a drone hovering right overhead. What, if any, would be the legal repercussions of shooting the stupid thing down?

[suthdj]

get a herf gun that should bring it to the ground then call police for a peeping tom.

[RJGold]

City Limits or neighborhood restrictions on discharging firearms would be my initial answer.

If you're outside the city limits and have no other restrictions for discharge of firearms, I don't think there would be an issue with shooting it.

Depending on size of the drone, you may need to think about where it lands (wouldn't want it on your Missus).

Some of the Legal Eagles on the Forum may be able to think about reasons not to shoot it but my response would be similar to yours.

My two cents...

[Keith B]

You must have watched Hot In Cleveland last night. LOL

As for shooting it, you could be charged with destruction of property. However, Texas has a really tough law on privacy invasion by a drone, so i would immediately contact the police. Get video of it over your property and evidence of who the operator is, including license plate info.

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/ ... navpanes=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09 ... drone-use/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you are going to shoot it, at least make sure it destroys the camera and any evidence of who did the shooting.

[Abraham]

Ruark,

Do you know if people are experiencing drones hovering over their homes/yards or is the question one of expecting it to to be commonplace?

Plus, I'd like to add some additional queries: Suppose the drone is being employed by L.E. and you shoot it down. Then what?

Or, does it not matter if it's a civilian high tech peeping tom or L.E. Your home/yard is being illegally invaded, so to speak?

[jimlongley]

Ruark,

Do you know if people are experiencing drones hovering over their homes/yards or is the question one of expecting it to to be commonplace?

Plus, I'd like to add some additional queries: Suppose the drone is being employed by L.E. and you shoot it down. Then what?

Or, does it not matter if it's a civilian high tech peeping tom or L.E. Your home/yard is being illegally invaded, so to speak?

Without regard for the legality of shooting it down, if the drone is L.E. and it is over my property, they had better have a warrant, or I will consider it as eligible to be interfered with as a non L.E. drone.

And how am I supposed to know the difference. will the L.E. drone have special markings so I will know?

[cb1000rider]

City Limits or neighborhood restrictions on discharging firearms would be my initial answer.
If you're outside the city limits and have no other restrictions for discharge of firearms, I don't think there would be an issue with shooting it.

Yea, there is an issue with shooting it. Exactly how much air do you "own" over your property? Pilots can fly over your property legally (assuming they comply with proper distances required by FAR). Nothing prohibits my flying an RC aircraft or autonomous aircraft over your property.

Shoot it down and you likely just damaged someones property. It wasn't "on" your property at the time. It was over it. Many of these things carry cameras. Shooting at them is not a good idea. Some can upload while in flight. Some pass video back to the "pilot" - and it's recorded.

I would not shoot one down. I would complain - and likely there is something that can be done about the person flying the thing... I'd rather do it that way.

New legislation is pending on these - so hopefully the issue will get straightened out. And I'm with you, if you're buzzing my stuff, I may feel that you're justified to shoot it down, but I don't think there is legal justification for doing so.

[cb1000rider]

Without regard for the legality of shooting it down, if the drone is L.E. and it is over my property, they had better have a warrant, or I will consider it as eligible to be interfered with as a non L.E. drone.
And how am I supposed to know the difference. will the L.E. drone have special markings so I will know?

I've had LE helos light up my house at 3am and then proceed to orbit it. It's a bit disconcerting. No warrant. They don't need one. And it'll make you think twice about stepping out with a firearm.
How is the drone situation any different?


In terms of spying, it's pretty easy to use a drone to pop up over the neighboring lot and monitor next door... Pretty hard to tell, unless you're on a huge parcel, if the drone is on your property until it's pretty much overhead.

[aaangel]

don't they have a camera or mic on board? just showing the business end of a rifle would hopefully make the controller fly away and give a good shout/warning that you're calling 911. just too much gray area on what to do with those things....even the white house don't know what to do.

[Abraham]

Perhaps, in an effort to dissuade them from hovering, you could "moon" them, while wearing a ski mask.

[joe817]

Perhaps, in an effort to dissuade them from hovering, you could "moon" them, while wearing a ski mask.

Now that's funny! Good one!

[BobCat]

In a neighborhood, as opposed to out in the country, I'd be reluctant to fire a rifle into the air at a small, moving target. Bullet has to come down somewhere if I miss. Possibility of "collateral damage" would dissuade me.

Shotgun? How high, how far away? Falling birdshot is less likely to kill someone than a rifle bullet, still likely to damage paint/windshield of neighbor's car.

Laser? Somebody once posted a link about really, really powerful (expensive) green lasers... I wondered what that would be good for, now see possibilities...

[Keith B]

Forgot to mention paintball. Would be great to color it up for them, as well as potentially block the camera from seeing anything else.

[cb1000rider]

Laser? Somebody once posted a link about really, really powerful (expensive) green lasers... I wondered what that would be good for, now see possibilities...

Don't do that. You might be recorded as pointing a laser at an aircraft, which is a huge federal no-no these days... Although it's not illegal to point it at an unmanned civil drone, it might be used against you by other means.
The private ones are relatively easy to take down. The propellers are relatively fragile...

[Ruark]

Thanks a heap for the replies so far.

No, I don't know of any, nor am I expecting any, privacy invasions by any drones; I'm just asking out of curiosity. And of course I'm assuming it's legal to discharge a firearm, etc. Maybe a pellet gun - that's not the question.

The legal citations in the other post are very helpful. It's obviously very illegal for a private citizen to use a drone to just snoop around on people.

The thing is, if you DON'T shoot it down, you have no way of knowing where it's from or who it belongs to. Remember, you can buy these toys that can go 60mph, have a 1.5 mile controller range and 1 mile max altitude, and they don't need to "take pictures," they can beam the video back to the home controller, where you can watch the video live on a video monitor and steer the drone around. Some of them let you input multiple GPS waypoints, so it will fly to that point, do something, then fly back. Some will go to a waypoint, then fly in circles around it, keeping the camera pointed towards it. All kinds of stuff. So it can fly over your wife working on her tan, do whatever it wants, then just disappear over the horizon, and you're helpless.