The AMA's Government Relations team has sprung into action, putting up an extensive blog post responding to the sudden surge of “drone” regulations around the country. It specifically singles out Oregon Senate Bill 71 saying, and I quote, “[the measure] has troubling language that could have unintended consequences for aeromodeling enthusiasts.”
They also included a copy of our video about Senate Bill 71 in their post – how cool is that?
It sounds like many of the bills in other states are far more rational and limited in their aims, mainly focused around ensuring that law enforcement does not use drone aircraft to infringe on the privacy of individual citizens, requiring a warrant to deploy drones in certain circumstances, and so forth.
Reading the comments that followed the post, however, it sounds like the draft bill in Texas also has the potential to hit FPV flyers pretty hard. The AMA promises a state-by-state examination of the different bills, as well as a recommended course of action. Stay tuned for that.
In other news, Bend-based quadcopter shop Xpro Heli waded into the fray with their own video opposing Senate Bill 71 today. Nice work, guys! Check it out:
They also set up a separate petition opposing this bill. Go ahead and sign this one, too – if one is good, two is better!
-Lucidity
If the actual objective of Oregon SB 71 is privacy, it makes much more sense to change it to criminalize the manufacture, sale, or ownership of all binoculars and telescopes. The writer of SB 71 obviously had no clue about the unintended consequences if this bill were to become law. Considering the reaction, he is now getting a clue.
Posted by: David Martin | 02/18/2013 at 06:51 AM