If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable" it. my first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing my falcon on it
or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

/Bernie\
--
Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--

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It appears that Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> said:

If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable" it. my >first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing my falcon on it
or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

No. Most drones are legally considered aircraft, and shooting down planes is definitely not allowed:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/32

Depending on where you are it may well be illegal for the drone to fly over your property,
but your remedies are legal, not self-help.

--
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

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Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> writes:

If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable" it. my >first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing my falcon on it
or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

Federal felony. A drone is an aircraft under US law.

18 USC 32:

(a) Whoever willfully -

(1) sets fire to, damages, destroys, disables, or wrecks any
aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States
...

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty
years or both.

--
dhs spencer@panix.com

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On 4/18/2021 10:06 AM, Bernie Cosell wrote:

If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable" it. my first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing my falcon on it
or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

If you live in a city, it's almost certainly illegal to discharge a
firearm except at a range or in actual self-defense.

Second, disabling the drone would constitute destruction of property,
which is a separate crime (as well as a tort you can be sued for). The
response is disproportionate the invasion of your property.

If somebody did that to me, I MIGHT buy a large mirror and reflect
sunlight at it to keep it from seeing anything (NOT focused sunlight,
which would be another way of disabling/destorying it).

More likely I'd say, "So what?"

--
I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...

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Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:

If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable"
it. my first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing
my falcon on it or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

This isn't my area of practice so I can't say for certain. What I can
tell you is that when you own land, the normal rule is that you also
own everything above the land. So from that standpoint you should be
OK if you shoot down or otherwise attack and disable a drone that is trespassing.

--
Stu
http://DownToEarthLawyer.com

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On 4/18/2021 9:40 PM, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:

Bernie Cosell<bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:

If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable"
it. my first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing
my falcon on it or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

This isn't my area of practice so I can't say for certain. What I can
tell you is that when you own land, the normal rule is that you also
own everything above the land. So from that standpoint you should be
OK if you shoot down or otherwise attack and disable a drone that is trespassing.

Such a bad idea. Shooting down an aircraft, a Federal felony. And a
local misdemeanor if you live in a city.

And you open yourself up to a lawsuit for damages on top of all that.

--
I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...

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"Stuart O. Bronstein" wrote in message news:XnsAD109E9169C5Dspamtraplexregiacom@130.133.4.11...

Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:

If a drone is flying over your property, can you legally "disable"
it. my first choice would be a rifle, but i could imagine siccing
my falcon on it or other non-firearm ways to take it down.

This isn't my area of practice so I can't say for certain. What I can
tell you is that when you own land, the normal rule is that you also
own everything above the land. So from that standpoint you should be
OK if you shoot down or otherwise attack and disable a drone that is >trespassing.

By that logic you should also be able to shoot down a person flying over
your house in a jetpack. As others have said, a drone is normally
considered an aircraft, so you can't just shoot it down or otherwise disable it, any more than you can deliberately injure or disable a person who
wanders onto your property. If it's a one-time occurrence, chalk it up to
a mistake by the owner getting used to their new toy. if it persists, find
the owner and tell them to stop, or else call the police.

--

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