this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2026
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[–] TheStaffmaster@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Bold move in a nation that treats firearms target practice as a sport.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 18 hours ago

First thing I thought of was "TARGET PRACTICE!"

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 2 points 14 hours ago

Crowbar stocks is on the rise.

[–] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 7 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Can we use jammers against them perhaps?

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 2 points 14 hours ago

Converting a little microwave oven to a homemade jammer gun never hurt anyone (it has).

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

A lot of americans already have them. I'm unfamiliar with them, but they've all got names like dezziteegoo and smiffunwessun.

[–] Ostrichgrif@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

Fun as it may be to shoot them out of the sky, that's not super feasible in urban or suburban areas. Don't want to risk the possibility of the bullet hitting someone on the way down and the neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate the gunshots

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 2 points 14 hours ago

lovely😍😍

[–] vane@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

They're just copying Chinese ideas, don't they ?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago
[–] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The drone on the thumbnail looks like the german flag!

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

It's so distinct that it must be intentional.

[–] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 1 points 19 hours ago

sounds expensive

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day ago

In other news, falconry has become unexpectedly popular.

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Once this becomes the norm next podcast is "What if we put small tasers on the drones? Our communities become much safer!". And then handguns etc...

And when they get hacked, people will be able to do mass shootings from the comfort of their own homes. That's what I call progress!

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 81 points 2 days ago (3 children)

“Normally what would happen… is like one cop would have heard that, flip on the blue lights, race down there… and someone’s about to die,” [Flock CEO Garrett] Langley explained, describing a case in which a woman called 911 on a man, who later turned out to be holding a lighter, not a gun, as initially suspected. “Instead, they launch the drone.”

Langley claimed that “we have thousands and thousands of stories like that where communities are safer now with our drones. They’re safer with our cameras.”

That's your prime example of a community becoming safer? The cops droning a mf because he lit a cigarette and some Karen panicked? You're the CEO of the fucking company with like the worst PR and you say this shit.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

How does that even change the situation to make things safer? Are they gonna crash the drone into a suspect to diffuse a situation? Unless Flock is advertising domestic drone strikes, then the only feasible deliverables are more spying and more profiling.

[–] bcgm3@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I read it as the drones protecting the civilians from the trigger-happy cops rushing in first.

[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 28 points 1 day ago

"We know cops are racist so we've lessened their load by making our drones racist too."

"Why are they not clapping"

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 55 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

Frankly, what a bunch of fucking creeps. Does no one else find it weird that they’re hellbent on spying on people? If it weren’t for the government we’d probably lock up these fucking psychos.

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

They will go down kicking and screaming. A company like flock has tons of investor capital. That results in a board putting tons of pressure on executive leadership. They will never go "oops nevermind this was a bad idea". It's just a other front in the class war against the billionaire Epstein class.

Next week having closed courtains will be illegal. What's going on in there? Probably something suspicious! Why is your bathroom window frosted?!

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 21 points 2 days ago

I have no doubt this is thiel's work. He needs the data for his surveillance machine.

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[–] mrmisses@lemmy.world 66 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Are they going to follow FAA rules then or just do whatever they want and kill people every now and then when they crash/fall out of the sky?

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't there an fcc rule about drones needing to be in the line of sight of the operator

[–] mrmisses@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Yes. They are also not allowed to be over people (including traffic) unless it's just to pass over to move to another area with no people (not allowed to continuously pass over people) unless they are below a certain, very low, weight. I think only one drone fits that category last I checked.

I have my commercial drone license but quit the job that required it so I am a little rusty on the rules

[–] beveradb@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No, they'll do whatever they want and kill people deliberately, frequently, whenever they say something which disagrees with the dictatorship state definition of truth. Give it a decade

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Well when they crash the company needs to replace the whole drone, so they are probably going to try to avoid that when possible.

That said, they should have to obey faa regs, but while the laws for private use are pretty clear, the commercial use regulations are layered and sort of in flux. Major operators are always pushing to have laws adjusted, and because leadership in the US is generally overly supportive of big business, those changes often go into place.

In other words, there ARE laws, but you know, it's the US, so they can probably change them.

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[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] popekingjoe@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I forgot that there was a sport meant to help train you for shooting drones out of the sky

[–] Sunnshine@sh.itjust.works 4 points 19 hours ago

Everyone told you shooting skeet was a useless hobby.

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 20 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It should be legal to destroy corpo property.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

one thing I learned is that everything is legal as long as you don't get caught.

[–] vegafjord@slrpnk.net 3 points 19 hours ago

According to my laws, this is not forbidden.

[–] modus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

It is if you ask me.

[–] Zomg@piefed.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean, if it hovers, a laser to a camera is a known thing...

[–] jayb151@piefed.social 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Genuine question...I've only ever thought that was some kind of movie magic we all accepted as reality. Could you blind a camera with any kind of laser pointer? Like, Dollar store shit would work? or it needs to be a special frequency or something?

[–] Zomg@piefed.world 1 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Not 100% sure if laser wattage matters. I'm sure if not a higher wattage just does it faster. A YT search for laser pointer camera probably would give you an idea.

After Looking at those vids myself it does seem wattage is a factor, and steadiness of the pointer does too.

Be very careful to adequately protect your eyes when using lasers. Different laser wavelengths need different eye protection

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I've been waiting for this for a long time. Drones are cheap. Automating their flight is a super solved problem. At some point every cop car will have a drone on demand that can pop out and follow. They'll launch some slow movers with big blades and just have them patrol. 30-40 minute flights.

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

This is already a thing

time to deploy our own counter-drone drones

[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Skeet shooting: city edition

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The maximum viable elevation that you can hit a target at with a shotgun is ~40m, or ~55m with a very tight choke. Drones can comfortably operate much higher than that. I guess it might work from the roof of a skyscraper though.

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