Government says you can’t snipe those annoying flying machines

If you think that drones really aren’t flying objects to be taken seriously, and shooting them down or disrupting their flight in any other way isn’t a big deal, you might want to re-think that because you could get into trouble with the Federal Aviation Administration!

The FAA has, for a while now, considered the drone to be a legitimate aircraft allowing the little flying objects to gain some credibility in the real world. Now, the aviation authority has gone one step ahead and declared that if someone damages a drone in any way with the intent to disrupt its flight, this act would be deemed a federal crime.

The possible sentence you could be staring at in the event that you ignore this rule? A troubling 20 years in prison!

Of course, the new rule attracts cynics as well as supporters. The cynics have always been wary of the way drones have begun ruling the skies – well, maybe not the skies but definitely the air space a few feet above your head! The fact that these machines can be put to use to cause nuisance and even encroach upon one’s privacy has often been a bone of contention, with the confrontations even reaching courts of law. This ruling certainly hasn’t gone down well with this segment, considering the fact that drones have now been given even more legal importance.

The supporters, on the other hand, are the ones who have fallen in love with all that a drone can do, and then hate the ones who don’t let them do what they please with their relatively cheap yet fairly efficient machines.

The FAA is serious about this drone business and shooting down one isn’t the only aspect that the new rule is covering. Using objects like a DroneDefender, a gun that sends out radio waves to disrupt the working of a drone’s remote as well as GPS workings, is part of the deal too, so there goes your money if you’ve invested in one.

https://youtu.be/d9Zvpx9fFsM

Whether you like it or not, the FAA has given drones a legal punch now, and there’s some serious jail time involved to ward away detractors. Be safe out there.