Can You Shoot Down A Drone In California? What To Know

CALIFORNIA — The mysterious drone sightings that have baffled residents of multiple states since mid-November are prompting a universal question: Is it legal to shoot down a drone in California?

Here’s the short answer: It’s not, nor is it legal anywhere in the United States under federal law to shoot down a drone with a weapon, or fire at it with a laser. California residents who violate federal law face criminal charges, civil penalties or both.

The question was initially raised by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, where multiple sightings of the unmanned aircraft have been frustrating residents for weeks. Last week, Smith urged the Pentagon to authorize the use of force to bring down drones after they were spotted tailing a Coast Guard vessel off the Jersey shore.

“Why can’t we bag at least one of these drones and get to the bottom of it?” Smith said.

The Federal Aviation Administration includes drones in its definition of aircraft under the Aircraft Sabotage Act, and it’s a federal offense to damage or destroy it, even if it’s flying over private property.

Aiming lasers at a drone, or into the sky, is also against the law, an FAA spokesperson told Patch. Lasers could shoot past a drone and strike an overhead aircraft, which is a crime punishable by law.

California has its own drone laws, which drones are defined “as an “unmanned aircraft” functioning without the possibility of direct human involvement. The term also includes the “communication links” and controller which help the pilot navigate the ‘aircraft’,” according to AirSight.com.

California’s first drone law was not about the drones themselves but amended privacy laws. “California’s first “drone law” amended the invasion of privacy statute to penalize drone operators who violate the privacy of others as described by the statute.”

Other California drone laws limit the civil liability of first responders who damage a drone while working.

“It also creates a misdemeanor offense for people who fly drones in a way that interferes with the work of first responders and other emergency workers,” according to the statute.
Another California drone law is focused on the rights of usage of drones by agencies and law enforcement, as well as their rights to not have drones in an area where emergency services are actively in place. California penal code 402: crimes against public safety states that misdemeanor charges could be filed if a person who operates or uses an unmanned aerial vehicle, remotely piloted aircraft, or drone is at the scene of an emergency. Every person who knowingly resists or interferes with the lawful efforts of a lifeguard in the discharge or attempted discharge of official duty in an emergency situation when the person knows or reasonably should know that the lifeguard is engaged in the performance of his or her official duty, is guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Drones are also not allowed to be flown around juvenile halls or state prisons.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, drones are not allowed to be flown around airports without express permission.

California is among nearly a dozen Eastern states that have reported drones buzzing overhead, some flying alone or in pairs but also in a cluster of drones. Some are as large as an SUV.

In Temecula, Murrieta, Hemet, Banning and Beaumont, and across the Inland Empire drone sightings have been reported to Patch and multiple news outlets. Though the reasoning behind them ranges from drone pilots admitting to having a bit of fun and being part of the conversation to questions regarding nearby military bases, there are no clear answers yet as to why the uptick in drones is happening.

Related: Drones Launch Nightly Over SoCal Skies: Who Is Flying Them And Why?

Political leaders are calling on the federal government to deploy high-tech drone hunters using recently declassified technology to help unravel the mystery that has baffled and alarmed residents of the Northeast over the past four weeks.

This weekend, an airport was shut down for about an hour Friday in New York’s Hudson Valley because of drone activity in the airspace. Two men were arrested and accused of operating a drone “dangerously close” to Boston’s Logan International Airport Saturday night. Also, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, was shut down for about four hours late Friday and early Saturday because drones were too close.

“This has gone too far,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement after Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, New York, was shut down. Hochul supports reform legislation that strengthens the FAA’s oversight of drones and extends the authority to select state and local law enforcement agencies.

In a news conference Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) urged the Department of Homeland Security to deploy high-tech drone hunters using the technology that was initially developed.

“If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is the technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck is going on,” Schumer said.

The federal government has offered few answers about the mysterious unmanned flights. The Biden administration has come under criticism from President-elect Donald Trump for not dealing with the matter more aggressively.

In a call with reporters Saturday that was organized by the White House, senior officials from the FBI, Pentagon, Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies sought to assure people that the drones are not a national security or public safety threat, or the handiwork of a malicious foreign actor.

The White House has said a review of the reported sightings shows that many of them are actually manned aircraft being flown lawfully, echoing the opinion of officials and drone experts.

The federal Homeland Security Department and FBI also said in a joint statement they have no evidence that the sightings pose “a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.”