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65-Year-Old Woman Shoots Down Drone Over Her Virginia Property With One Shot (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Ars Technica: Jennifer Youngman, a 65-year-old woman living in rural northern Virginia shot down a drone flying over her property with a single shotgun blast. Ars Technica reports: "Youngman told Ars that she had just returned from church one Sunday morning and was cleaning her two shotguns -- .410 and a .20 gauge -- on her porch. She had a clear view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and neighbor Robert Duvall's property (yes, the same Robert Duvall from The Godfather). Youngman had seen two men set up a card table on what she described as a 'turnaround place' on a country road adjacent to her house. 'I go on minding my business, working on my .410 shotgun and the next thing I know I hear bzzzzz,' she said. 'This thing is going down through the field, and they're buzzing like you would scaring the cows.' Youngman explained that she grew up hunting and fishing in Virginia, and she was well-practiced at skeet and deer shooting. 'This drone disappeared over the trees and I was cleaning away, there must have been a five- or six-minute lapse, and I heard the bzzzzz,' she said, noting that she specifically used 7.5 birdshot. 'I loaded my shotgun and took the safety off, and this thing came flying over my trees. I don't know if they lost command or if they didn't have good command, but the wind had picked up. It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens.'" Ars goes on to explain that aerial trespassing isn't currently recognized under American law. "The Supreme Court ruled in a case known as United States v. Causby that a farmer in North Carolina could assert property rights up to 83 feet in the air. There is a case still pending on whether or not Kentucky drone pilot, David Boggs, was trespassing when he flew his drone over somebody else's property. "Broggs asked the court to rule that there was no trespassing and that he is therefor entitled to damages of $1,500 for the destroyed drone."
Ask "the same Robert Duvall from The Godfather" if he would be ok with one of those hovering over his home.... I am sure he is fine with the press/paparazzi using those. If it was scaring her cows and invading her privacy... all I can say is "good shot".
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
An abandoned stroller could be a bomb. Better blow it up, just to be safe.
Youngman said the intruding pair quickly brought attention to themselves when they exited their SUV, parked in front of Duvall's residence.
Youngman said a series of burglaries in the area a few years ago, coupled with sightseers, has caused an increase in neighborhood awareness, as well as action by Duvall's security team.
Youngman said she believed in 2nd Amendment rights and also was irritated that people would try to disturb Duvall.
“The man is a national treasure and they should leave him the fuck alone,” she said.
The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office said it had no record of anyone formally complaining about this incident.
Sounds like a good neighbor.
If they won't let you fly a drone over the white house without permissions, then it shouldn't be allowed over my house either without my permission. I think ruling in favor of damages is a terrible precedent.
Give it a few more years, maybe a person or two killed or maimed by an out of control drone at a sporting/large event,
Give it a few more minutes and a person or two will be killed or maimed by an out of control gun toting idiot.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Hey, there's nothing in the bible against guns.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Oh, give it up. You've lost that one.
Things are called what people call them.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Now THAT'S what Gun Control is all about...hitting your target on the first shot, and a kill shot to boot.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Texas and ISIS are the only places in the world where you can just shoot down anybody who enters "your" property.
Depends how good you are at disposing of the body after.
Yes, she has a different lifestyle than yours. She must be mocked and ridiculed.
Way to celebrate diversity there, homie.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
Like all those NRA members shooting each other over gang turf in Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit?
Amen! A shotgun can hold more than one shell. Use the first to shoot down the drone and the others (preferably slugs) to shoot the operator.
I carry a .45 on my job, mainly for protection from vicious dogs. The pistol holds 10 rounds in the magzine + 1 in the chamber. The first round is for the dog, the other 10 are for the dog's owner. .
Haven't had to shoot one yet, but any day now . . .
Sounds like there's a vicious dog with an itchy trigger finger
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
If fact, there are verses in the Bible that are pro-gun (in a general sense) and pro-self-defense. Jesus Christ told his followers to sell their extra cloak and buy a sword. Many people, especially those unfamiliar with the Gospels, don't know this.
Here's a novel idea. How about a drone operator inform a property owner that he or she would like to fly the drone over the property, and explain why in advance?
Yeah, nice to think we have not progressed since then, eh?
Even I, a person who's never even held a gun, knows this is a fucking stupid thing to do.
Even you, a person who's never even held a gun, should shut the fuck up until he learns how firearms work. There are lots of pistols which are designed to be carried with a round in the chamber, probably most notably including 1911-pattern handguns.
People like you are the reason why people think anti-gun activists are morons.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Legal issues aside, if she was aware of the operator's location, it was a dick move to destroy the drone without simply talking to the operator first. Half the drones I see are being operated by kids with their parents standing by as a fun hobby. There's not always nearby or sufficient public land for the activity, and it's normal to want to try out new flying locations. If she had a problem with operating a drone in the area, she could have told them so. 99% of drone operators are going to comply in that sort of situation. If they were rude after being asked to leave, then I can see justification for shooting the drone down.
1500 feet? Do you have a mode C transponder?
How sad you equate shooting a toy with shooting a human. Or did you purposely conflate those two things in attempt to make a point?
You realize that an AR-15 is just a semiautomatic rifle, with a manufacturer-stated rate of fire of ~45-60 rounds per minute, yes? And that a semiautomatic pistol can fire just as quickly, and in some cases, faster?
But yeah, keep on pretending that an AR-15 is just a slight bit less deadly than a fucking atomic bomb. Because OOOOH a rifle is scary!
Look, I'm not averse to more gun control laws being put on the books - I think we're too permissive and there are a lot of sensible steps we could take that would prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. But you dipshit activists who sit there whining about rifles while ignoring the fact that something like 80% of gun deaths are caused by handguns are absolutely hilarious. Do you hate AR-15's because they're big and black? Or is it just what the good folks on MSNBC told you to think?
Here's a thought, maybe she's not a techy geek hipster millenial who thinks that the worst thing that could ever happen to them is to be temporarily disconnected from TwitterBook.
You sound like the world would be losing something in an owner who does not control their dog.
It wont...
You sound like the type of person who thinks you should be able to kill any one for just about anything, even looking at you funny. The world would be better off without you.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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