Wow. This is beyond ridiculous. And to think the man is charged when those asshats are clearly to blame. I hope the judge will see the situation clearly.
I'm not defending the drone pilots here, but is it ever okay to fire a shotgun into the air in a residential area? That's dangerous right? And threatening to shoot the pilot and his friends, that's surely not okay either.
Firing a shotgun into the air won't hurt anything. If you fire a gun with a bullet, then the projectile can actually kill a person when it comes down, but shotgun pellets are harmless after 75 yards or so. This was justified. I'm a dad and if someone were peeping on my daughter they would have a really bad day.
A falling drone, especially one that's damaged and hard to control, would be very dangerous to bystanders. The birdshot is only "harmless" on its own, when it isn't bringing down a drone with a bunch of spinning blades attached.
Birdshot has a very low ballistic coefficient, and slows down rapidly due to air resistance. When it falls back to earth, it's basically like throwing a handful of BBs at someone from across a room. Except even smaller and lighter than BB gun BBs. They don't even penetrate tree leaves. This is why you use a 20 ga. shotgun to hunt squirrels sitting in trees. It's very safe (for everyone except the squirrel), whereas even a .22 bullet will retain a lot of energy at long distances. This guy picked the exact right tool for the job.
No you're right, there was excess in his acts. I feel the situation would've made me more than a little unnerved. Enough to do something not that logical. They invaded their home, with something that's alien, speedy and not quite reachable easily. And they where oogling my daughter. That would definitely introduce panic in my demeanor as well.
Don't you remember Bush SHOT someone with birdshot and it was laughed off. Would ave shot the drone myself, it's as much an invasion as a person sitting in my lawn filming my daughter in person would be.
I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Cheney, not Bush. He shot Harry Whittington during a quail hunting trip in 2006. There's a pretty big difference though in someone being shot while out hunting and discharging a firearm in a residential area. I don't have a good idea what the neighborhood they're in is like, however. If they're sitting on an acre or two of land, I'm not sure I can argue with this. If there's another house a few steps away, maybe shooting into the sky isn't the best way to solve the issue.
Yes, that one, sorry, but the decade does fly by. Shooting into the sky pretty much always is going to bring some type of risk. It was stated that the drone was seen hovering over a neighbors house then moved to his backyard over a pool. The houses were easily a stones throw away from each other. Suburbia. This makes shooting skyward the best option. Again, birdshot, was really the best option outside of rock salt. Not many keep that handy, though personally I would suggest a shotgun with it if its planned for home defense. That's enough to deter most anything at 25 yards. Except bears, but you know what to do if you are in that territory.
The drone pilots released a video of the flight data of the drone. It consistently stays above 200 feet and only goes over his house for a second. This is just a case of a paranoid man with a gun. Don't be so quick to just believe one side of the story.
Wow. This is beyond ridiculous. And to think the man is charged when those asshats are clearly to blame. I hope the judge will see the situation clearly.
I'm not defending the drone pilots here, but is it ever okay to fire a shotgun into the air in a residential area? That's dangerous right? And threatening to shoot the pilot and his friends, that's surely not okay either.
Firing a shotgun into the air won't hurt anything. If you fire a gun with a bullet, then the projectile can actually kill a person when it comes down, but shotgun pellets are harmless after 75 yards or so. This was justified. I'm a dad and if someone were peeping on my daughter they would have a really bad day.
A falling drone, especially one that's damaged and hard to control, would be very dangerous to bystanders. The birdshot is only "harmless" on its own, when it isn't bringing down a drone with a bunch of spinning blades attached.
Birdshot has a very low ballistic coefficient, and slows down rapidly due to air resistance. When it falls back to earth, it's basically like throwing a handful of BBs at someone from across a room. Except even smaller and lighter than BB gun BBs. They don't even penetrate tree leaves. This is why you use a 20 ga. shotgun to hunt squirrels sitting in trees. It's very safe (for everyone except the squirrel), whereas even a .22 bullet will retain a lot of energy at long distances. This guy picked the exact right tool for the job.
So what's the ballistic coefficient of the drone, and how much kinetic energy will it have when it drops to the ground?
No you're right, there was excess in his acts. I feel the situation would've made me more than a little unnerved. Enough to do something not that logical. They invaded their home, with something that's alien, speedy and not quite reachable easily. And they where oogling my daughter. That would definitely introduce panic in my demeanor as well.
Don't you remember Bush SHOT someone with birdshot and it was laughed off. Would ave shot the drone myself, it's as much an invasion as a person sitting in my lawn filming my daughter in person would be.
I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Cheney, not Bush. He shot Harry Whittington during a quail hunting trip in 2006. There's a pretty big difference though in someone being shot while out hunting and discharging a firearm in a residential area. I don't have a good idea what the neighborhood they're in is like, however. If they're sitting on an acre or two of land, I'm not sure I can argue with this. If there's another house a few steps away, maybe shooting into the sky isn't the best way to solve the issue.
Yes, that one, sorry, but the decade does fly by. Shooting into the sky pretty much always is going to bring some type of risk. It was stated that the drone was seen hovering over a neighbors house then moved to his backyard over a pool. The houses were easily a stones throw away from each other. Suburbia. This makes shooting skyward the best option. Again, birdshot, was really the best option outside of rock salt. Not many keep that handy, though personally I would suggest a shotgun with it if its planned for home defense. That's enough to deter most anything at 25 yards. Except bears, but you know what to do if you are in that territory.
The drone pilots released a video of the flight data of the drone. It consistently stays above 200 feet and only goes over his house for a second. This is just a case of a paranoid man with a gun. Don't be so quick to just believe one side of the story.
No video from the downed drone?
Not that I've seen. It's entirely possible it wasn't recording, was damaged in the crash, or that it didn't have a camera at all.