A believer in UAPs (or UFOs) takes aim at UAVs (or drones)

Legislation that would make it legal for people to shoot down drones over their property, introduced in March by U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, is drawing fire from law enforcement and other users of unmanned aerial vehicles.

The bill, dubbed the Defense Against Drones Act, “permits individuals to use a legally obtained shotgun to shoot down a drone if they reasonably believe it is flying at or below 200 feet above their property,” the Tennessee Republican said in a news release.

“While this legislation does not mandate that the individual who shoots down the drone return it to its owner, they are required to report the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration … within 60 days if the drone’s registration number is identifiable,” he said.

The proposal is probably a long shot, and it has yet to draw any co-sponsors. But for Burchett, it is part of a larger quest in Congress to unmask mysterious flying objects.

Asked what prompted the measure, Burchett said via email that it “allows Americans to protect themselves, their property, and privacy against drones. I introduced this legislation after hearing from folks in East Tennessee concerned with unknown drones flying over their homes. The legislation ensures compliance with state and local laws.”

News outlets in Burchett’s district said the Tennessee National Guard reported in February that drones were spotted last fall over a number of its installations, and the Guard asked the state legislature to provide funding to make the facilities more secure.

Those reports followed an uproar late last year over repeated sightings of unexplained flying objects over New Jersey and other states, though the Trump White House said in January that most of the drones were authorized by the FAA.

Burchett was among those sounding alarms at the time of the East Coast sightings, and he told news outlets he believed the government was lying about the drones. “I don’t think they have control of it, and they don’t know what to do, so they’re just going to lie,” Burchett said in a NewsNation report.

The four-term Republican from Knoxville has repeatedly criticized the government’s handling of reports of unidentified aerial phenomena, commonly known as UFOs. He reintroduced a measure this Congress that would require the release of documents to the public, and last month he told NewsNation there should be more transparency about federal investigations.

“America needs to know,” he said. “We need to demand that of our elected officials. Quit joking around about little green men and flying saucers. We’re spending tens of millions of dollars on something … we deserve to know. Give us the information.”

And Burchett told former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on One America News in January that an unnamed admiral told him that a UFO the size of a football field is moving through the world’s oceans at “hundreds of miles an hour underwater,” according to CBS News.

Industry tries to shoot down idea

But when it comes to drones, few in the burgeoning industry support Burchett’s idea of allowing people to shoot them down over their property.

“While effective counter-UAS (cUAS) solutions are essential, this approach raises serious concerns,” said Casie Ocaña, vice president for public affairs at the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, an industry group.

“It is illegal to interfere with aircraft, including drones, for many good reasons,” Ocaña said in an email response to questions about Burchett’s bill. “As we saw in New Jersey during December, manned aircraft — including general aviation planes, commercial airliners, and helicopters — were misidentified as drones. Making it legal to shoot down drones would not only undermine airspace security but also create significant safety risks for all airspace users and those on the ground.”

The FAA controls the airspace over all 50 states, though federal regulations allow the use of some small drones at low altitudes without registration of the UAVs. Drones heavier than 0.55 pounds, or 250 grams, must be registered with the FAA, and users must comply with all federal, state and local regulations. Tennessee, for example, has a state law making it a misdemeanor to use a drone to violate privacy.

The fast-growing use of drones in a host of businesses makes Burchett’s proposal perilous, said Miriam McNabb, editor-in-chief of the news website DRONELIFE, via email.

“As commercial drones scale, I think this bill could have very serious unintended consequences,” she wrote when asked about the measure. “The drone shot down could be a drone delivering an Epi pen to a child in your neighborhood, a utility company checking the power lines to your home, or local law enforcement answering an emergency call.”

“I think more education is needed about the benefits and uses of commercial drones, and more tools made available to provide transparency about what is really in the low altitude airspace,” McNabb added.

Some of the biggest concerns come from police officials, said Jon Beal, president and CEO of the Law Enforcement Drone Association, an Oregon-based nonprofit that helps agencies set up drone programs and learn how to use UAVs. He said about 2,000 law enforcement agencies currently have at least one drone, and many of the other 16,000 police organizations across the country are considering acquisition.

“Usually agencies will wind up getting budget money for drones when they find a missing young child or missing elderly person who most likely would have died had it not been for the drone, and that happens on a weekly basis,” Beal said in a phone interview.

Police also use drones for tactical assessments, such as how to safely apprehend a barricaded gunman, and a drone can be a first responder to a call for help, enabling authorities to better determine what resources are needed at the scene, he said.

Beal said he appreciates Burchett’s attempt to give people a way to protect themselves and their property, “but I do think it is dangerous, because most drones have legitimate reasons for being in the airspace.”

He added that it can be difficult to determine whether a drone is below 200 feet, especially if it’s a larger UAV that may be flying at twice that altitude but looks closer from the ground. Not to mention that shooting down a drone could cause harm to people and property when it lands, Beal said.

If the nefarious use of drones was more prevalent, law enforcement officials would be hearing about it, Beal said. “Those cases that come across when people get arrested for drone crimes are few and far between,” he said, “and there are millions of drones out there in the U.S. that are operating both for commercial purposes and for hobby purposes.”