Gun-Firing Drone Raises Some Eyebrows

An anonymous reader writes: A video posted on YouTube showing a drone firing a gun in a wooded area has caused some controversy today. The short video shows a four-rotored custom drone with a special rig containing a handgun. The handgun proceeds to fire four shots, handling the recoil better than might be expected. The user who posted the video also submitted it to Reddit, where a commenter noted that the apparent use of a solenoid trigger would class the device as an automatic weapon under ATF rules.

Comments

Priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

This has two components, the handgun and the drone. I suspect the push will be for greater legislation of drones rather than handguns.

Re:Priorities

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Seems reasonable. I don't doubt that if the National Rotorcraft Association were a political force to be reckoned with they'd go after the handgun instead.

Screw the ATF

[mi]

use of a solenoid trigger would class the device as an automatic weapon under ATF rules

What's ATF? A bunch of busybodies seeking to control our use of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms — all perfectly legal things. Dissolution of that agency is long overdue — it should never have been created in the first place...

This is only a start

[heretic108]

(Apart from any observations about how technological advances are largely driven by porn and guns)...

I can see some people mounting camera-sighted scope rifles on their drones. Protecting the lives of controversial public figures has suddenly become a whole lot more difficult. Expect an arms-war of RF jamming and anti-drone drones, and countermeasures to these, in endless iterations.

Re:Just like defense distributed

[gweihir]

While this demonstration is not surprising in any way at all, stupid and evil politicians will of course jump right on it. The fact of the matter is that neither can drones be suppressed, nor can firearms. In the worst case, you do a front-loader with self-cast lead bullets and powder from firecrackers.

Of course, authoritarians (and basically all politicians with any real power fall into that class these days) are afraid all the time and irrational all the time as a consequence, so no rational arguments will help. If these people ever realize what any good engineer or scientist in the physical sciences can do (but almost universally does not do), they will panic completely. Until the human race learns to keep authoritarians under control, there will be no end to evil.