Originally Posted by
ImbracableCrunk
Wasn't it the FAA who had jurisdiction and said that nobody gets to shoot down aircraft - be it 747 or a drone - unless it's a shoot-down order from the pres, etc?
Section 1602 of the legislation specifically outlines the “protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft,” The bill further permits US authorities to neutralize a potential threat using “reasonable force."
You probably aren't member of "US authorities" and your backyard grill isn't a "certain facility."
The FAA is an administrative dept of the DOT. while they have some limited powers to regulate the airspace, they have no police powers(authority) of any kind that I know of. They can make a regulation that it is unlawful to shoot down a drone, and they can then have an administrative hearing if such an action happened, but the FAA itself cannot open a criminal case. It would need to be referred to one of the LEO powers of the US govt. I have no idea which agency would get involved. As I said before, it doesn't really bother me too much that US authorities are given the power to shoot down a drone in the protection of facilities it deems important. There may at some time in the future be a case where the US authorities acted rashly in shooting down a drone which is flying 100' over a state library, or monument, or some other non-critical facility of the state/nation. All I care about is that the citizen retains the RIGHT to protect life, liberty, privacy and property from unwanted exposure via drone.
My opinion and mine only is that one should be able to enjoy one's backyard grill without being observed by a drone, particularly when one BBQs in the nude, as I am wont to do. So, I guess that's a piece of advice, if one is a drone operator, in TX and one flies around my place - it may not return in the same condition it left, if it is able to return at all.
