This Florida bill could put your drones at risk

A new Florida bill that is set to be voted on by the state’s Senate could put drones flown in the state at risk of being shot down or brought down using “reasonable force” if a person believes their privacy is being violated and the drone is below 500 feet.

Florida Senate Bill 1422 is another example of a state legislator attempting to regulate something it has no authority over due to increased publicity of drones potentially flying overhead. While a local or state government can dictate where an aircraft can and can’t take off from or be operated on, it still has no jurisdiction over where an aircraft can fly as that lies with the FAA.

The bill is similar to a Connecticut law introduced last month that seeks to ban drone flights over “critical infrastructure.” The list is extensive but includes many reasonable sites like power plants, pipelines, refineries, or any place fenced off and marked as not to enter. However, the bill also includes facilities already covered under federal law, like airports and military facilities, and because it’s Florida, spaceports.

However, the law goes a bit further by giving individuals the right to down the drone using “reasonable force.”

The bill doesn’t state a definition as to what “reasonable force” is. However, given that anti-drone systems are extremely expensive and the law doesn’t disallow them, you can assume a Florida Man would quickly use a firearm to take down drones if given the option.

However, while in committee, one Senator did state that “I don’t want anyone under the notion that they can go and just shoot things down from the air.” However, without a definition, someone is likely going to do something stupid before getting taken to court.

Shooting drones down is illegal under federal law and punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Federal law usually supersedes local laws, so even if a law implies a possibility, it’s still illegal.

The law states that individuals have the right to take down any drone violating their expectation of privacy if it’s flying below 500 feet, which means all drone flights would be affected, as drones aren’t allowed to fly higher than 400 feet AGL.

For now, the FAA is the sole body with jurisdiction over the nation’s airspace. However, that could change with a recently introduced Senate bill that would pass the first 200 feet of jurisdiction to local governments, effectively creating up to 90,000 new drone regulations and potential localized drone bans depending on what city you’re in.