Death By Drone Comes Home to Roost

It seems this little bit of video showing a small drone multiple-firing a semi-automatic handgun, has federal authorities and the news media all aflutter.

It should. 

The potential for drone-caused mayhem is as real as... well, any other kind of mayhem, from running a remote-controlled petrol tanker into a school houses, to dropping chlorine gas machine into the subway. There are a 1,000 ways to kill people with bombs, guns, gas, and poison.

Back in 2012 I predicted civilian guns and drones were just around the corner. It was not a heavy lift since the military has been using bigger versions for years.

There is a lot of punting about whether this little drone legal, but that hardly matters, does it?

It's not like someone interested in building one of these, and flying it into a stadium at the Super Bow, is going to be worried about FAA regulations or gun laws. The problem is not the law; it's that this idea is too easy. Can we be more than a few years away from swarms of drones that chase you while firing bullets? I think not.

Death by drone, like the proverbial chicken, comes home to roost.