Man shoots down drone hovering over house

We need to talk anti-aircraft weaponry.

More and more so-called enthusiasts are sending drones into the sky. This means that more and more normal humans are becoming enthusiastic about shooting them out of the sky.

Especially, as in the case of William H. Merideth, the drone is hovering over your house.

Merideth, 47, lives in Hillview, Kentucky. As WDRB-TV reports, a neighbor heard gunshots and called the police. Merideth allegedly told the police that a drone was hovering over his house, where his teen daughter (he has two) was sunbathing. So he pulled out his gun and gave it a merry death.

The drone's owner, police say, said he was flying it to take pictures of a neighboring house.

However, Merideth told WRDB: "Well, I came out and it was down by the neighbor's house, about 10 feet off the ground, looking under their canopy that they've got under their back yard. I went and got my shotgun and I said, 'I'm not going to do anything unless it's directly over my property.'"

And then it allegedly was.

Merideth explained: "I didn't shoot across the road, I didn't shoot across my neighbor's fences, I shot directly into the air."

He says that shortly after the shooting, he received a visit from four men who claimed to be responsible for the drone and explaining that it cost $1,800.

Merideth says he stood his ground: "I had my 40 mm Glock on me and they started toward me and I told them, 'If you cross my sidewalk, there's gonna be another shooting.'"

There appears not to have been another shooting. However, Merideth was arrested for wanton endangerment and criminal mischief. There is, apparently, a local ordinance that says you can't shoot a gun off in the city, but the police charged him under a Kentucky Revised Statute.

I have contacted both the Hillview Police Department and the FAA to ask for their view on proceedings. I will update, should I hear.

The FAA's recommendations include not flying above 400 feet and "Don't fly near people or stadiums." The FAA adds: "You could be fined for endangering people or other aircraft."

For his part, Merideth says he will sue the drone's owners. He told WRDB: "You know, when you're in your own property, within a six-foot privacy fence, you have the expectation of privacy. We don't know if he was looking at the girls. We don't know if he was looking for something to steal. To me, it was the same as trespassing."

It is, indeed, hard to know whether things that buzz in the sky have positive or negative intentions. Amateur drones disrupted efforts to fight recent California wildfires to such a degree that there's now a $75,000 reward for anyone who identifies those responsible. A Southern California lawmaker has created a bill that would make it legal for the authorities to shoot these drones out of the sky.

So that's why I didn't get my Amazon order!

I wonder if he used buckshot or birdshot?

Sicko was trying too look at this mans two young daughters. He lost Torgo's delivery too.

Merideth did the right thing.

I expect that where the debris landed will be significant in deciding things for him.

I've thought myself that if I caught someone spying on my property with a drone, I'd do my best to knock it down too. I'm thinking of trying to buy one of those net shooters though. Safer than a shotgun.

Since the owners of the drone, claimed to be using it for photography...

If, it can be determined, that photographs were taken of the sunbathing teens, the owners of the drone should be criminally charged...
Peeping Tom laws exist in nearly all jurisdictions...

And, since the girls are teens, I'm sure that child pornography statutes were violated.

If, the drone transmitted photographs of the teens, to a computer...
Use of an electronic device, to transmit child porn.

It's a big if...
But, if, the owners of the drone, were spying on sunbathing teens...
They belong in prison.

Yeah! Now we can all get radar systems and rocket launchers to defend our personal air space.

"You have violated my air space. Boom."

Nah, I goin with the Home Security Lazer Gun. Don't be home without it.

Good time to get into home security business.

Keep it over your own property. Hover on my property......Bang!!!! I'd do the same as this man!