WASHINGTON – A hobbyist who calls himself “Milo Danger” has posted an online video that shows how a modified drone from a hobby store could be equipped to shoot people.
The video, called “Citizen Drone Warfare,” focuses on a drone mounted with a paintball pistol that flies over a field, hitting human-shaped targets with pellets.
The man who uploaded the video to YouTube tells The Washington Times that he shot the video to raise ethical issues linked to drone technology.
“I wanted to show an inevitability of what I think will happen with these drones,” said Milo, who lives on the West Coast and declined to be identified.
“I’m not advocating bad activities. But I wanted to raise some of the ethical issues we need to think about with this new technology.”
He says some of the people who worked with him on the project wanted to see whether they could escape the drone as it fired paintballs. He says they were unable to do so.
The Washington Times reports Federal Aviation Administration regulations don’t explicitly mention the use of firearms on drones. But the regulations do prohibit recreational flying or dropping objects from aircraft that endanger people or property.
In November, a Massachusetts man was sentenced to a 17-year prison term, after admitting to plotting to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol with a remote- controlled model aircraft equipped with explosives.
Prosecutors say Rezwan Ferdaus was arrested as part of an undercover FBI sting, in which agents posed as Al Qaida operatives.
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