FAA: Now A Federal Crime To Shoot Down A Drone

At least 12 different drones have been shot from the sky in the United States, including drone shootings in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Kentucky, and New Jersey. 

 You hear a giant mosquito like noise outside, you look around and you see an annoying drone above you...

So you get out your shot gun and blow it out of the sky.

Just kidding.

Now you don't get to do that any longer.

 They have passed a law against it just in case you want to blow a drone to oblivion.
 
 Now the FAA is confirming that drone shooting is a federal offense, citing regulations against aircraft sabotage. 

An aviation attorney (teaching drone law at New York's Vaughn College of Aeonautics) tells Forbes this means penalties of up to 20 years in prison for interfering with the "authorized" operation of an aircraft, while threatening a drone or a drone operator would also be a federal crime subject to five years in prison. 
 
Slate notes that "This is bad news if you were planning to invest in the DroneDefender, a goofy-

looking gun that promised to disrupt intrusive drones by bombarding them 'with radio waves that disrupt [their] remote control and GPS signals'."

 And Popular Science adds that "It also poses a complication for some local and state laws, like Utah's proposed HB 420, which would let police shoot down drones in emergency situations."

Meanwhile, police in the Netherlands are actually training eagles to attack drones.

And last week in South Africa, a drone crashed through the window of an office building and hit an unarmed office worker on the head.