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Drone Hunters Lining Up and Paying Out In Colorado 206

Posted by samzenpus from the shoot-it-down dept.
coondoggie writes "What might have started out a whimsical protest against government surveillance tactics has morphed into more as a small town in Colorado has found itself overwhelmed with requests and cash for a unmanned aircraft hunting license that doesn't exist."
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Drone Hunters Lining Up and Paying Out In Colorado More

Drone Hunters Lining Up and Paying Out In Colorado

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  • I still want one (Score:5, Funny)

    by WalksOnDirt ( 704461 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @09:14PM (#44771163)

    Yeah, not a real license. I don't care, I still want one.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Sure, transfer 100 bucks to my Paypal and I'll give you your very own not real unmanned aircraft hunting license. Do you prefer it hand-made or do I have to open MSPaint?

    • Irony (Score:5, Insightful)

      by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @09:28PM (#44771229) Homepage Journal

      I think this may fit the definition of irony, that people, who just may eventually be hunted by drones, are trying to get licenses to hunt the drones, while the drones that hunt them, do not need any license, because the people have already given the government enough power to ensure both: that they eventually can be hunted by drones (and no license required) and that they can't actually get a license to protect themselves.

      On the second thought, this is not irony, it's just oppression.

      • Re:Irony (Score:5, Funny)

        by LifesABeach ( 234436 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @09:31PM (#44771243) Homepage
        Considering the size of the drone, driving through town with one tied on the hood could be problematic.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ksevio ( 865461 )
          Drones used for surveillance would likely be small sized ones so they could fit nicely in a trunk
          • This license isn't limited to "drones used for surveillance." It covers "unmanned aerial vehicle", and even some manned ones.

            • Well, I'd draw the line at manned ones.

              But if you disguise your drones as birds, don't be surprised when I mistake them for one.

        • Re:Irony (Score:5, Funny)

          by Main Gauche ( 881147 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @10:43PM (#44771611)

          *sigh* you've never field dressed a drone?

          • I know there is a high school prom joke about how my partner was kinda dull hidden in here somewhere, but I just can't really pinpoint it.

          • *sigh* you've never field dressed a drone?

            Yeah, duh. The first thing you do is cut its wings off, then clip its fuel line and drain it out before tying it to your hood.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mysidia ( 191772 )

          Considering the size of the drone, driving through town with one tied on the hood could be problematic.

          That's not the biggest problem for whoever shoots one down. It's the free (mandatory) all-expenses paid trip to Guantanomo bay, followed by indefinite detention.

          • Why does the old Soviet joke come to mind?

            Pravda has made a competition for the best political joke. First prize: 10 years vacation in Siberia.

            • In Soviet Russia, "You shoot drone"? Or "You Take Drone Freedom"?

              Has anyone else noticed a bit of an (internet) September effect going on here at /.?

              Maybe the fact that we knew and complained about this NSA stuff first has brought a bunch of people from the web?

      • It's funny how people of a country that was founded by people who flipped their sovereign off consider it necessary to get a license to do the same to theirs...

        • No, whats funny is that you need licenses to hunt and fish for your own food.

          If you can't catch a god damned fish without government approval, what hope is there for getting approval to shoot down a drone?

          • Re:Irony (Score:4, Insightful)

            by dave420 ( 699308 ) on Friday September 06, 2013 @08:22AM (#44773971)
            So if everyone went out and fished as much as they want, and all the fish died out from overfishing, you'd be fine with that. Gotcha.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by bkr1_2k ( 237627 )

              People fishing for their OWN food would never make this happen. Overfishing/over hunting is due to sport and due to commercial enterprise. If you only kill what you eat there's no possible way for you to decimate a population as you suggest.

            • People eat or they die. So you would have people starve to death.

              • Better a few people starve to death now than entire population starve to death later, just because some idiots couldn't understand that eating the last animal on the island will mean no more animals ever.

    • "That's not a drone license. It's a dog license with the word dog crossed out and the word drone written in."
      "The man didn't have the proper form."

      • IIRC the same sketch contains a reference to a "loony detector van".

        I'm wondering if this whole idea is a honeypot for catching crackpots.

    • Yerp, (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )
      Drone sure is good eatin'

      Why else does all Y'all think I need a drone shootin' license.

      • This is going to come up some day.

        Person flies personal drone over another's property, intentionally or accidentally.
        Property owner shoots it down.
        Shooter puts drone guts go on ebay - even as spare parts, they would be worth quite a bit.
        Original drone owner claims theft.

      • Does the "it's coming right at me" rule work for drones?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jamesh ( 87723 )

      Yeah, not a real license. I don't care, I still want one.

      You could store it in your wallet along with your Federal Breast Inspector license :p

  • Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

    by ClickOnThis ( 137803 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @09:15PM (#44771169) Journal

    In Soviet Russia, drones shoot you!

    [Uh, wait ... maybe not just in Soviet Russia ...]

  • Are you listening? It seems your constituents may not be all that keen on having drones used on civilian populations.

    Oh yeah, it's not an election year. So I guess not.

    • Re:Hello, congress! (Score:5, Funny)

      by pla ( 258480 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @09:32PM (#44771253) Journal
      Are you listening?

      What a silly question! Of course they listen! Why, we have a whole intelligence agency with no legitimate purpose other than to listen in on...

      Oh, you didn't mean "illegally spy on", you meant "take your bosses seriously". Sorry, simple mistake.
  • News at 11 - Bob Fink blew up the house of his best friend John Ackers today in Deer Trail after mistaking him for a CIA drone. John Ackers mistook Bob's missile as a terrorist attack and blew up Deer Trail's only Mosques in retaliation.

  • That totally sucks! (Score:3)

    by sgt scrub ( 869860 ) <saintium@nOSPaM.yahoo.com> on Thursday September 05, 2013 @09:37PM (#44771269)

    "Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane." I thought manned airplanes flew at high altitude over my house because I WAS allowed to shoot at them. The trailer parks is getting to be a real drag.

  • then sue the pants off of whomever decides that they have the fucking rights to shot my RC plane out of the air.
    • Sorry, the law says the shooter must pay you the cost of the vehicle, that's all.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mdenham ( 747985 )

        I'm pretty sure an RC plane costs more than the shooter's pants, so he would technically be able to sue the pants off of the shooter and still get some money as well.

      • Sorry, the law says the shooter must pay you the cost of the vehicle, that's all.

        That's cool. I can put a lot of hours into building a vehicle. How much per billable hour do you think you'd pay for someone to build you a custom drone?

  • A bunch of guys shooting up in the air in an uncontrolled manner.

  • Drones vs. Planes (Score:3)

    by NouberNou ( 1105915 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @10:03PM (#44771369)
    I have never understood the hatred and mistrust placed on drones versus aircraft, fixed or rotary wing. It seems like a bunch of Luddites. Drones are cheaper, safer, and usually more capable at doing the task at hand than fixed wing or rotary wing aircraft at doing a job thats already been done for decades by law enforcement and the military. Also a drone, in the military at least, allows for a more calm and collected engagement of targets, reducing collateral damage and fratricide.

    • Re:Drones vs. Planes (Score:5, Insightful)

      by wisnoskij ( 1206448 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @10:09PM (#44771401) Homepage

      So you are saying that drones are a cheap, easy, and incredibly effective way to oppressive your citizens, and you are wondering why everyone is worried?

      • Re:Drones vs. Planes (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Obfuscant ( 592200 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @10:12PM (#44771411)

        So you are saying that drones are a cheap, easy, and incredibly effective way to oppressive your citizens,

        They're also a cheap, safer way to obtain scientific data in remote areas of the country (like Deer Ass, Colorado). Despite the paranoia, not all UAV use is for shooting you while you sleep.

        • Re:Drones vs. Planes (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday September 06, 2013 @02:18AM (#44772555)

          No problem. Get a license to fly that thing over there where you have to state a reason and have the county/city permit it. Make the government do the same. Pass a law that it may not be used to stalk or harass anyone (or why should you be allowed to fly a drone over your ex' house to see who she dates now?). Make records public of who obtained such a license and for what purpose.

          That would already be enough to make sure my paranoia sleeps well tonight.

      • drones are a cheap, easy, and incredibly effective way to oppressive your citizens

        No, he's saying that drones are a cheap, easy, incredibly effective and safe way to oppress your citizens.

        Pffft, Luddites .. who needs them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by labnet ( 457441 )

      I have never understood the hatred and mistrust placed on drones versus aircraft,

      I think the issue is that is much easier to push the 'fire' button when it all looks like a videogame, compared to being in a plane/helicopter as a human pushing the button.
      With America heading toward corporate fascism, there will be a big need to 'protect the citizens from the nasty terrorist protestors'. Drones have scalability, and the 20yr old kids will think it's just like a video game.

      • Re:Drones vs. Planes (Score:4, Insightful)

        by NouberNou ( 1105915 ) on Friday September 06, 2013 @12:30AM (#44772157)
        I actually personally know a number of drone operators and its not a "just push a button" type scenario. Weapons release requires a significant amount of authorization, ranging from commanders in the field to lawyers in the pentagon. There is up to a dozen people in the chain of command that are all required to say "yes" to engage targets.

        The reason they have the luxury is because it is a drone and not a pilot over enemy territory (this is in operations that occur in "areas" not recognized, where the country letting them do the drone strikes doesn't particularly want it known to their general population). A fighter pilot has a lot more stress, and they are more prone to making bad decisions because of the many more immediate constraints on their judgment.

        Do drones allow these types of attacks to occur more easily? Probably, but on the other hand they'd probably be executed in some form or fashion either way (cruise missile strikes, which are far more prone to failure in target selection, or human operations, aka spec-ops or hired guns/foreign service).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by labnet ( 457441 )

          Thanks for your comments, and no offence intended to your drone friends. That chain of command may be in operation now, but if there is mass civil unrest, requiring 'thousands of drones', this authority could be curtailed to just the drone operator... or even more scary, computer AI.

        • Do drones allow these types of attacks to occur more easily? Probably, but on the other hand they'd probably be executed in some form or fashion either way

          That's not the other hand. That's an orthogonal issue. A serious one to be sure, but still a separate one. The problem with drones is not that they enable us to kill people, you can do that with a rock. With sufficient planning, you can do it with a rock remotely. But drones are a "game changer" or if you like, paradigm shift (*runsaway*) because it makes killing both cheap and easy. It ultimately is a "just push a button" scenario. There might be some discussion before the button pushing, but in the end, y

          • And now you know why the guillotine was invented -- the mass execution needed some efficiency improvements. Sure, it hasn't kept up with the times and even more efficient methods have been invented as a result.

            Related to what you said, IMO the problem with using drones for execution is that it makes it easier. By easier I specifically mean:

            1. quicker -- just a few phone calls to get authorization? no need to select, equip and deploy a special ops team?

            2. cheaper -- a drone has a high price tag, but the cost

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by b4upoo ( 166390 )

      There are also hunters who want to use a drone with a gun mounted on it to take game. A suppose that if we allow hunting by helicopter we might as well allow hunting with a drone. The oops factor might be fun to watch. Can a drone identify a safety orange hunting vest?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjr167 ( 2477430 )

      For the same reason that it is OK to fire a cruise missile at a target, but not OK to use an unmanned drone to kill the same target...

      Most people are pissy about the idea of the government constantly watching them. They find the idea of any aircraft flying overhead at low altitudes taking pictures of them sun bathing nude in their backyard creepy (though if more people did that I bet the program would stop cause have you been to Wal-Mart?). It's just that no one worries about the government using manned a

  • The license, if it existed, would exempt you from being fined by the city for unlicensed shooting of a drone. The owner of the drones, particularly if the owner of the drones is the state or federal government, will not be so nice. As a joke, it's funny. People taking it seriously, believing it offers some legal protection, are delusional. It's like doing a search-and-seizure on your neighbor with a badge from a Cracker Jack box.

  • Seriously America? (Score:3)

    by sidevans ( 66118 ) on Thursday September 05, 2013 @11:30PM (#44771891) Homepage

    Does your solution to everything have to be shoot / bomb it? Surely you guys can be more creative - EMP, Deathray. signal jammer / spoofer, hack the drone maybe I dunno... There's got to be better ways of bringing down machines than technology that's been around since the Song Dynasty in China (960 - 1279).

    • OK. This is so truthfully funny I snarfed my coffee. You win the internet today my friend.

    • " There's got to be better ways of bringing down machines than technology that's been around since the Song Dynasty in China (960 - 1279)."

      Of course there is. It's just that shooting them down is both more fun and provides a sense of direct connection with the termination. People don't shoot things because it's the only solution, but the one that provides the most entertainment in the process.

    • Surely you guys can be more creative - EMP, Deathray.

      Yes, truly a deathray would be much less violent than a gun.

  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BBCWatcher ( 900486 ) on Friday September 06, 2013 @12:16AM (#44772097)
    I don't think anybody likes drones except perhaps the people who build them. However, I'm really upset with the idiots who even think about pointing a weapon up in the sky -- or aiming a laser, for that matter -- in a misguided attempt to fight the spread of drones. There are *people* flying overhead all the time in aircraft both small and large, and there's no way to tell which aircraft is manned and which isn't even if you want to do something stupid. There's a federal death penalty for anyone interfering with an aircraft (or "related facilities") that results in death, so this is serious stuff. I don't like it when people go duck hunting without being careful not to point their weapons anywhere near a family cruising along in their Cessna. If you want to fight the spread of drones then do it in ways that won't get people hurt or killed -- resulting in more drones, probably. Defund them, prevent them from being based in or launched from your community or state, boycott their manufacturers and affiliates, tax them heavily, make their owners/operators/manufacturers personally liable for the worst torts imaginable, and/or whatever. But for the sake of the people up in the skies, please, please don't even think about shooting at them.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by cbope ( 130292 )

      Exactly. Has anyone actually thought about what might happen if you are actually able to shoot one from the sky? A drone is a small aircraft. Do you really want that falling in your neighborhood? If people start actually shooting them from the skies, it won't be long before some innocent people on the ground are killed by falling parts or the whole aircraft itself. Shooting them is about the most stupid thing you can do, ever. How about voting the idiots out of office who are supporting them in the first pl

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jawnn ( 445279 )

        Exactly. Has anyone actually thought about what might happen if you are actually able to shoot one from the sky?

        Yes, most of us have. Congratulations on being so totally whooshed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      It isn't actually all that hard to tell a drone from a manned vehicle using a half decent scope. It would be irresponsible to shoot one down in a neighborhood or urban setting (where discharging a gun is also illegal), but if it's flying over an empty field, human safety isn't a problem.

      I haven't seen any reports ever of an aircraft being shot by hunters. Perhaps it has happened, but I'd think it would make the news.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jawnn ( 445279 )

      I don't think anybody likes drones except perhaps the people who build them. However, I'm really upset with the idiots who even think about pointing a weapon up in the sky -- or aiming a laser, for that matter -- in a misguided attempt to fight the spread of drones. There are *people* flying overhead all the time in aircraft both small and large, and there's no way to tell which aircraft is manned and which isn't

      If can tell the species of duck I'm calling at several hundred yards, I'm pretty sure that I can tell a Predator from a Cessna Skyhawk from an A300, you insensitive clod.

      I don't like it when people go duck hunting without being careful not to point their weapons anywhere near a family cruising along in their Cessna.

      OK, now you're just being fucking stupid. Duck hunters shoot down Cessna's? When? I've never hunted Cessna's but I can tell you for sure that a load of #4 steel shot isn't going to bring one down.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chihowa ( 366380 )

      I don't like it when people go duck hunting without being careful not to point their weapons anywhere near a family cruising along in their Cessna.

      Unless that Cessna is flying extremely close (~50 m) to the ground, anyone hunting duck won't be able to hurt it. Birdshot loses velocity to air resistance very quickly. If they are going to fly that low, they really ought to avoid areas where people are shooting into the air.

      We discussed this the last time this article came up. You're not going to hit a drone with a shotgun and shooting into the air with a solid bullet is stupid and dangerous (and you'll have a ridiculous time hitting an aircraft, anyway).

  • From the original article [thedenverchannel.com]:

    "Even if a tiny percentage of people get online (for a) drone license, that's cool. That's a lot of money to a small town like us,"said Boyd

    The funny thing here is that the FAA in all their "seriousness" has become the PR department, for free. The FAA's own Altitude Rules [aerolegalservices.com] pretty much would keep aircraft above the area covered by the town's "Rules of Engagement".

  • One dollar, one vote (Score:3)

    by SkimTony ( 245337 ) on Friday September 06, 2013 @11:33AM (#44775969)

    I've seen lots of comments about, "This is stupid, and can't possibly be legal." That said, legality of shooting down drones is irrelevant: this is about people who are willing to pay money to make sure drones aren't harassing Americans. I'd pay $25 for that. It's too bad it's not more money. For about $10bn., you could buy enough votes to actually start to change something.

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