After news broke that drones circulating over Wyoming’s Niobrara County this autumn bear eerie similarities to those now reported over New Jersey and other places, many Wyomingites raised a war cry of “Shoot them down!”
But that’s illegal, drone experts and law enforcement say.
“You shouldn’t shoot down drones because it’s against federal law to shoot down aircraft in flight – any aircraft, any altitude,” retired Air Force Col. Stephen Luxion told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
Luxion also serves as executive director of research program Alliance for System Safety of Unmanned Aircraft Systems through Research Excellence (ASSURE).
Title 18 of the U.S. code, section 32, says destruction of aircraft is a federal crime punishable by a fine and up to 20 years in prison.
A Florida man who shot down a Walmart drone he thought was watching him was fined $5,000 this month.
In Wyoming, destroying an object worth less than $1,000 is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines. If the destruction amounts to more than $1,000, it’s a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
It's rare for people convicted of felony property destruction to10 years in prison. Many Wyoming defendants walk away with far lesser penalties. But perhaps more dire for many Wyomingites, a felony brings the loss of one’s gun rights.
But if the drone is threatening someone, everything changes.
“If the drone is doing something – like it has weapons on board, that’s a totally different ball game,” said Luxion. “But what’s happening here happening now is not that.”
The mystery drones over New Jersey have been running lights that satisfy flight regulations, and they have been staying within their lawful air zones for the most part. They have, however, drawn close to the Picatinny Arsenal, a military research and manufacturing facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities say they don’t know who’s operating the drones. The Department of Homeland Security and FBI said they have no evidence that the aircraft pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.
Maybe A Murder Problem …
Luxion said a person can never be too sure someone won’t get killed when shooting down aircraft. Especially with some of the mystery drones reported to be six-foot in diameter – potentially large enough to carry a person or people.
“And as you’re seeing in the craziness of this whole thing, people are reporting commercial airliners as drones; small aircraft as drones,” said Luxion. “You don’t want to do this.”
East-coast residents – including a military official with expansive drone expertise – told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that some known drone models and manned aircraft have been mistaken for unidentified drones amid the public’s rising concerns. But the residents said they’re also seeing numerous drones they can’t identify.
Case Law Needs Developed
Some states and local governments have nuisance and privacy laws meant to intervene if a drone is over their homes, but the case law in that area is still murky and “needs to be developed,” Luxion said.
The Wyoming Legislature in 2023 considered a proposed law, Senate File 34, penalizing drone pilots for trespassing onto private property. The bill ultimately failed in a committee during the legislative session.
But first, state lawmakers contemplated a carveout letting aggrieved homeowners shoot down invading drones.
“I thought maybe a shotgun would be an appropriate legal weapon to take a drone with,” Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, said that January.
He wasn’t alone. Then-House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, told Cowboy State Daily months prior that a drone zoomed up to his own kitchen window while his wife was home.
Had he been home, he’d have shot it, he said.
But existing property laws may prohibit that reaction, Sommers added at the time. He encouraged lawmakers to give the matter “thoughtful discussion.”
This Is Unsettled
In May of 2022, the Wyoming Legislative Service Office prepared a research brief calling the regulation of trespassing drones a “still fairly unsettled” matter.
The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) in 2018 provided a model law draft that could have deemed any nonconsensual drone flight below 200 feet over someone’s property trespass. But after further consideration the commission re-drafted the proposal in 2019, saying it’s only drone trespass if the aircraft interferes with someone’s use and enjoyment of his property.
Ultimately the ULC tabled the issue, says the legislative memo.
The lineup of bills proposed ahead of Wyoming’s 2025 lawmaking session, which starts Jan. 14, shows no bills under the titles “trespass,” “drone,” “aircraft” or “unmanned.”
Boom
New Jersey Army National Guard Col. David Melendez, who managed drones for the military as a battalion commander and ran a schoolhouse branch that trained people in drone usage, also cautioned about secondary damage from shooting down a drone.
That’s not as much of an issue in Niobrara County, which is the least-populated county in Wyoming.
But in New Jersey and other dense areas, a downed drone could easily hurt bystanders.
Some authorities have the technology to safely drop or even hack drones, said Melendez.
“They’ll mimic the radio signal and be able to control the drone and land it someplace,” he said.
But if the drone is running on a 5G or 4G network, for example, “You can’t control it,” said Melendez. “It won’t give a signal, as in a radio signal.”
He clarified that there could be a system out there that could hack such a drone, but he didn’t know of one.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
