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Drones coming to your neighborhood

It looks like drones are coming to spy on Americans, used by local police departments, federal agencies, and private organizations. When the full implications are considered, this move might be among the worst violations of God-given rights short of genocide.

The federal government is moving quickly to open the skies over America to drones – both for commercial and government purposes – and respected Washington Post and Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer is forecasting "rifles aimed at the sky all across America."

Who's the Bad Guy?

It's rarely who you expect.

Unless you live in a particularly terrible neighborhood or are a police officer by trade, you don’t likely encounter villains and vermin on a daily basis. Any veteran law enforcement officer will tell you that most of the bad guys they arrest don’t look at all like the typical Hollywood stereo-type.

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They imagine the late night stop at the convenience store or gas station and spotting a masked robber holding the customers at gun point. They visualize the knife-wielding robber approaching them at an ATM.

Here is what they don’t imagine or visualize; shopping at their favorite grocery store at 11:30 a.m. and a crazed ex-husband walking in the front door with a shotgun looking for his former wife then taking hostages. They don’t expect to be sitting in a booth at a popular waffle restaurant at 4 p.m. and a mentally unstable man walking in and indiscriminately opening fire. Both instances took place recently. Reasonable people certainly don’t consider sitting in a church pew Sunday morning when a lunatic enters the building with a gun to terrorize the parishioners.

Less than six months ago a good friend of mine, a professional firearms trainer and part-time deputy sheriff was accosted in his business in the middle of the day by a man who perceived that he had wronged him. The antagonist was not a drug-addicted meth-head or a robber wearing a ski-mask. He could more aptly be described as a “good ole boy” wearing jeans and a flannel shirt driving a pick-up truck.

This same trainer, who looks more like an MMA fighter, than a cop, was traveling with his wife when a local cab driver tried to press a strong arm robbery. The driver demanded twice the agreed on cab fare with an implied threat of violence. During both instances my comrade had to produce a firearm to stop the threat. No shots were fired, but it convinced me that I needed to write this piece. If my friend, who definitely does not look the part of a good victim, could be accosted, twice, what chance do the rest of us have to go about unmolested?

Page updated 2012 May 16.