Drones are in the news every day. Sometimes it is good, like when they drop supplies on impoverished areas that are otherwise inaccessible. Sometimes it’s bad, like when they block emergency vehicles from getting to fires. The fact is, drones are becoming more and more a part of every day life.
This doesn’t sit well with many people. The chance of a person remotely spying on you or your family can get pretty creepy pretty quick. Snake River Shooting Products has developed what they think to be a perfect solution; drone specific ammunition. The product, called Dronemunition carries a “ferromagnetic payload” which should completely incapacitate a drone when hit. Further details on the construction of the shells was unavailable.
However, Snake River may encounter some issues with this product, as shooting a drone out of the air is a federal offense.
Whoever willfully—
places or causes to be placed a destructive device or substance in, upon, or in proximity to, or otherwise makes or causes to be made unworkable or unusable or hazardous to work or use, any such aircraft, or any part or other materials used or intended to be used in connection with the operation of such aircraft, if such placing or causing to be placed or such making or causing to be made is likely to endanger the safety of any such aircraft;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years or both.
Currently, their site for the drone ammunition is under construction so there isn’t much to look at. If you have questions though, you can go to Snake River’s site.
Update: We reached out to Snake River to ask about the construction and legality of the ammunition. President,Casey Betzold, elaborated a bit.
We came up with the Drone Munition concept for a couple reasons. It started in a discussion with some friends of ours who have an aerial based flying target solution (similar to a Quad-copter/drone). They have been looking for a dedicated ammo product line that will work well for their training program and recreational shooting experience. We applied the Drone Munition name with the marketing spin both to hit this target market, as well as to bring a discussion to light on the growing drone market. Being former military it is important to us to always view things through the lens of potential or evolving threat. We are catching a lot of flak from pro-drone/gun owners on this product calling it irresponsible, however they should also know that a shotgun isn’t a reliable defensive solution for drones due to speed they fly and how they might be used to cause harm. That said, there may be LE applications as we have had law enforcement inquiries due to greater infringement of drone use during investigation at a crime scene, and by fireman as drones have impeded their efforts in many cases. We see irresponsible drone use as the greatest threat to responsible drone users period.
The ammo at present, is really a high end goose or turkey load. Lead free, in a 2 shot and BB variant. This is because the most likely use of the product is for hunting or self defense. We are looking at some interesting technology at present that may be out soon, but again, is geared toward training and utilization hunting, or on aerial targets at the range. The self defense portion of firearm use is what covers a real threatening drone situation and we expect regulations to come down focused specifically on drones in the near future (expected by 2017). Federal, State, and local laws dictate when, where, and in what situations a firearm can be discharged. We are in no way condoning or suggesting the use of our product in an illegal manner. We are fervent supporters of the 2nd Amendment, and believe that the vast majority of gun owners clearly understand the responsibilities that come from freedom and thus will not utilize this shot shell any more than they would shotshell they have in their home today in an illegal or irresponsible manner.
[via Petapixel]
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