No Fly Zones for Drones

Dear Fellow Survivalist;

drone-300x200Greetings. You’ve probably heard the story about William Meredity, of Kentucky, who shot down a drone that was flying over his backyard, filming his daughter sunbathing. I think I would have done the same, if it had been my daughter. Nevertheless, he was arrested for that and charged with willful destruction of property and discharging a firearm within the city limits.

But that brings up a much bigger issue to consider. Drones, which used to be the province of governments, have become big business. There has been a 167% growth in their sales in the last two years, with the United States accounting for more sales than any other country. So you never know which of your neighbors might have a drone that they’re flying around, spying on you.

You know, it’s bad enough having the government spying on all of us, but when anyone can do it with impunity, that’s pretty bad. Our privacy is being eroded day by day, with all our failings being posted online for all the world to see. Defamation of character is becoming the new sport, with the losers being those who are targeted by the drones or go-pro cameras.

I think I can write the next chapter in this story. Criminals are going to start using drones to spy on their intended targets. Whether it is a rapist who is stalking his next victim or a break-in artist who wants to make sure that nobody is home, drones will soon become part of the criminal’s toolkit.

There are no laws governing the use of drones and guaranteeing us any privacy from them whatsoever; not even one. Both criminals and pests are perfectly within their rights to spy on anyone they want to, and nothing can be done about it.

Of course, passing laws to prohibit the use of drones for criminal purposes would have about as much effect as laws that make it illegal to use drugs. Criminals don’t pay attention to any laws, regardless of what they are. But you can be sure that some well-meaning legislator is going to draft a law and get it passed, which makes this illegal. Voila, problem solved! Yeah, right!

The fact of the matter is that drones are here to stay and we’re eventually going to get to the point of having to find a way of defending ourselves against them. Allowing people to shoot them down might be a possible solution, but it’s a risky one. Whatever goes up, has to come down, and shotgun pellets that don’t hit the drone are going to come down somewhere. That might just end up being somewhere where they cause damage.

Ben Marcus has founded a service where people can register their homes as a >>> Click Here NoFlyZone <<<<.

This information is stored in a database, allowing drone operators the ability to look up properties and check to see if they are open for drone operation, before flying. Unfortunately, like locks, that’s only going to work to keep the honest people honest. It is doubtful that will stop any criminal action.

One possibility might be to use geofencing to create these no fly zones, preventing drones from entering. Of course, that assumes that drone manufacturers build the firmware into their devices to obey the geofence, as well as assuming that the criminals don’t disable the function. Ultimately, the effectiveness of this would probably depend a lot on the individual criminals’ technical capability; but it would at least stop some of them from using it.

From a survival viewpoint, having people around with drones will make it much harder to live in a post-disaster world, without others being able to see how you are surviving. The simple act of flying a drone over the backyard would show your garden, chickens and however you are cooking. That information could then be used to target your home.

I think I’d really want a way of disabling drones in that time. If shooting them down with a shotgun is out, then how about a comic book gun that shoots a net into the air to catch it? That could be fairly argued to be a non-dangerous solution, and maybe even one that wouldn’t damage the drone. Anyone who came to collect it would have to show their face, letting you know who they are.

Coming to collect would have its own problems, as they would instantly lose their anonymity, making it more dangerous to go forward to commit the crime. That might actually work as a deterrent, at least with some criminals using drones. But I’d say the chances of a law being passed, allowing that, are somewhere between zero and none.

Without a viable legal means of protection, we are all potential victims. That’s not a place I like to be. Somebody is going to have to come up with a realistic solution to protect us from these drones, before things get out of hand. Until they do, we’d better keep one eye on the sky above our homes.

See you again soon. Until then, keep your powder dry and your survival equipment close at hand.

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