America’s latest contribution to safeguarding personal privacy is ammunition designed to blast camera-wielding drones out of the sky.
The drone munition shot shell fits a 12-gauge shotgun and contains high-quality steel ball bearings. It is being marketed by Snake River Shooting Products, to “defend against drone-based privacy concerns and terror”.
Casey Betzold, the company’s president, said: “We see this as a game changer in the industry and an important defence against rising threats to our way of life.” If no drones are hovering menacingly, the company added, it could always be used to hunt ducks.
Anxiety over the misuse of drones has escalated in recent months. Reports of small quadcopters being flown near airports have raised fears of a fatal collision with a passenger jet.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports that drone sightings by pilots have increased from 238 in 2014 to 650 this year.
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In Kentucky last month a man was arrested for shooting down a drone.He said it had been hovering above his sunbathing teenage daughter.
Conversely, in Connecticut a man mounted a 9mm pistol to a drone, turning it into an improvised flying weapon.
Snake River believes that such stories have created a demand for its anti-drone ammunition. However, it warns that the US rules governing drones remain hazy. “With little regulation surrounding drone use, there is much confusion about what a person may do to defend against drone threats,” it says.
The government is not overly keen at the prospect of citizens blasting away at drones. “Shooting at aircraft poses a significant safety hazard,” a spokesman for the FAA said. “An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air. Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil charges.”
The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association, a trade body that represents hundreds of commercial drone users, has admitted that “nuisance drones” are becoming a serious problem.
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In California, helicopters being used to fight a forest fire had to be grounded because drones being sent up to film the blaze were in their way.