By Brian Resnik | National Journal
If an Amazon drone were to stumble into the airspace above Phillip Steel’s yard in Deer Trail, Colo., he knows exactly what he’d do: Grab his shotgun. “I would shoot it down, ordinance or no, I would shoot it down,” he tells me over the phone, later adding, “I will shoot it down and go to jail with a smile over my face.”
Deer Trail is one place Amazon probably won’t pilot its “Air Prime” drone delivery system. The town is poised to vote in the next week and a half on an ordinance that will allow drone hunting, an ordinance Steel authored.
That is, the measure will allow citizens of Deer Trail to purchase $25 drone-hunting licenses and then bring pieces of shot-down drones back for a bounty of up to $100. The text of the ordinance oozes with a not-on-my-lawn disdain for the copters. “As such, every unwanted unmanned aerial vehicle is hereby declared a threat to … precious freedom,” it reads. And, yeah, the kids can get in on the drone shooting too. “There shall be no age requirement or restriction for issuance of the hunting license.” No background investigations will be needed to obtain a drone hunting license. It’s that essential of a right.
