Home-made Flying Gun

[cronus]

[Hermit]

This clip got 27 million views in three years.

[Seth]

Can you say "skeet shooting?"

The problem has been created by the FAA defining radio controlled models as "aircraft", which they are not. a "craft" is an object that can transport human beings and cargo.

The first problem with the FAA deciding that RC models (autonomous or not) are "aircraft" is that it has now illegally "taken" dominion of airspace owned by the owners of the surface beneath. Prior to this decision the ownership of airspace (which includes the right to sole occupancy thereof), at least within some reasonable distance above the surface susceptible to use and occupancy, has traditionally been private property and trespass through that invisible box is, in most cases and positively so in Colorado, a criminal offense. Such trespass includes objects or projectiles as well as persons.

Thus, in the past, if someone flew a "drone" past my front window it was a criminal trespass and I was within my rights to get out my shotgun and blow the damned thing out of the air.

In Colorado, the sole exception to the "ad coelum" doctrine of ownership of airspace, which is codified into Colorado statutes, is for the "right of flight of aircraft," which has traditionally and obviously limited to passenger-carrying aircraft. Even such aircraft are prohibited by FAA regulations from flying within 500 feet of any person, vessel, vehicle or structure, with specific exceptions. A property owner who is trespassed by low flying aircraft can both make a complaint to the FAA and file a civil suit against the pilot.

With the definition of consumer-grade radio controlled flying objects as "aircraft" the federal government has takes the most essential right in the bundle of rights associated with property ownership, the right to exclude others, away from the property owner and made it open to public use by such low-altitude and extremely intrusive devices.

I'm just waiting for someone to have the nickle drop and file a bunch of lawsuits against drone operators for trespass and against the feds for an uncompensated and therefore unconstitutional taking.

14 CFR 91.119 - Minimum safe altitudes: General.
There are 8 Updates appearing in the Federal Register for 14 CFR Part 91. View below or at eCFR (GPOAccess)

CFR
Updates
Authorities (U.S. Code)
Rulemaking

prev | next
§ 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface—
(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA; and
(2) A powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section.
[Doc. No. 18334, 54 FR 34294, Aug. 18, 1989, as amended by Amdt. 91-311, 75 FR 5223, Feb. 1, 2010]

[mistermack]

Looks like a godsend for the mafia.

Or drug dealers. They're going to have to ban them in the end.

But what the hell? Might as well wait till some real atrocities have been committed first.
(not that people in the US care too much about those)

It doesn't need a machine gun to take you out. A very small bullet through the head will do it, so a small purpose-built unit with just a tiny single-shot gun will be the assassin's weapon of choice.
Just download the program, and make it with your 3d printer.