What’s happening these days in NJ—the proliferation of drone sightings—prompts me to yet another screed about the phenomenon. But I shan’t speculate, again, even satirically on what they are, what they even might be if not drones, where they come from. My questions here today are about just what we are allowed and not allowed when it comes to stuff dropping down from our close-friendly skies.
I once wrote for a wonderful insurance agent guy/friend and one of the points we discussed about the intricacies of modern-day policies, is just how one might need to be covered these days if one owns a drone or comes to be buzzed by one. Our considerations were over suppositions like: What happens if a drone you are flying suddenly comes crashing down on somebody’s porch? Could either homeowner or drone flyer be covered for this? Or: How close can you come to someone’s property with your drone without the flight becoming technically an invasion of someone’s homestead and property? In the modern age, there are so many new questions of this type that arise.
A NJ congressman and many NJersians are simply saying that we should shoot the drones from the sky (and as of this writing I am surprised nobody has taken this tack yet…or maybe they have and I just haven’t heard about it). Surely, shooting up in the air, at somebody else’s property (or at nothing at all) has lots of complications, and the FAA says shooting an aircraft (and drones land in this category) is illegal. But as I did when considering the legalities of insurance ramifications of drones, I wonder, when we look at the FAA’s ruling more specifically, is it truly illegal to shoot at/take something down that is encroaching on one’s private property. Surely, this opens up the question of where one’s private property begins and ends in the air around our homes. But if somebody enters our home that we didn’t invite, we do have the right to stop them from continuing further, this is legal.
And, then, if something lands on your land, if you had a hand in bringing it down or not, is it then your property? Can you keep it then, sell it?
This point about ownership came into play for me a few years ago when I heard of another NJ story where a meteor smashed into a Trenton home (see here). My question at that time wasn’t so much one of ownership (the guy whose house the space rock fell into surely claimed the meteor, as it was his right to) as it was over the further tax implications if the homeowner sold his space rock (and there were scientific institutions offering money for it). According to our tax laws, even if one makes more than $600.00 selling items at a garage sale, one is technically required to pay capital gains tax. But since the meteor in the above story did not come from Earth, and capital gains has only ever applied to Earth ‘made’ items, property, or the jobs we do here on terra firma should capital gains apply when it comes to making money from something not of our little blue-green world?
When stuff comes from or dances around our friendly skies, we need to wonder about these questions.
So, drones? What’s going on here, really? Is this all becoming more a question of mass hallucination or is there really something out there, and are these somethings dangerous or benign? And lastly, if (although it seems more likely to be ‘when’) someone takes a shot and brings a drone down, is it technically against the law to shoot at somebody’s else’s property (Iranian or not) if that property is invading one’s hearth and home?
Did you know, that as of October of this year, 791,597 drones were registered in the US? One wonders how many more are out there unregistered.
Get out your guns kids, it’s gonna be a fun holidaze season!
