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Do you own the airspace above your house; drones, privacy, and property rights


Ser Scot A Ellison

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All you'd have to say is you had a reasonable fear that the PT might attack your spouse. The individual has already displayed illegal activity, so it's reasonable to fear they'd continue to break the law. And there have been a number of highly covered cases as of late where "reasonable fear" was enough to justify someone's actions.

But hey, that's why you're a lawyer and all I've done is take the LSAT.

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"reasonable fear" is the short way of saying that one has

a ) actual subjective fear, and

 b ) this actual subjective fear is objectively reasonable.

the witness can testify as to the existence of fear, and the trier of fact can believe that testimony or not.  the witness normally can't say 'hey and my fear was reasonable.' (as an aside, i wouldn't put that testimony on; if witness was capable of rationally evaluating the type of fear in the moment, just how bona fide is the fear?) trier of fact must infer from circumstances whether the fear was reasonable.  my bet is that it will, and always should be, manifestly unreasonable to shoot someone merely because they are looking in a window.  that authorizes casual assassination of someone on the sidewalk whom i happen to notice looking toward me through my open bedroom window.

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Interesting topic Scot.

Question for the lawyers,

If you see a peeping tom outside your bedroom window who is on your property, is it legal or illegal to shoot at them?

It should be illegal, without the PT putting you in threat of physical injury.  A drone is not a person.  It is next to impossible to know who is operating a drone over your property and as such I think it should be treated differently than a person who is trespassing for voyueristic purposes.

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It should be illegal, without the PT putting you in threat of physical injury.  A drone is not a person.  It is next to impossible to know who is operating a drone over your property and as such I think it should be treated differently than a person who is trespassing for voyueristic purposes.

If a person were in your yard for no clear reason, a rational person would ask them (perhaps forcefully) what they are doing there.  You cannot do that with a drone. 

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It should be illegal, without the PT putting you in threat of physical injury.  A drone is not a person.  It is next to impossible to know who is operating a drone over your property and as such I think it should be treated differently than a person who is trespassing for voyueristic purposes.

I get that. I was asking because if you could shoot a PT on your property then the only questions here would be firearm discharge regulations and property rights.

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The original dronemaster, Ben Franklin, flew a electromagnetized kite over his neighbor's property, and it was perfectly legal by virtue of him being one of the fathers of the Constitution, thrice blessed be its name, amen.

IHT,

The Constitution is not now and has never been "holy".  Thinking it matters as written does not mean it is being "deified".  It means when you call a document the "supreme law of the land" that means what the document says matters.

I, for one, would love to see a Constitutional convention called and the existing document reworked or even a new one adopted from scratch.  But until that is done the Constitution, as written, has the power it has.

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The original dronemaster, Ben Franklin, flew a electromagnetized kite over his neighbor's property, and it was perfectly legal by virtue of him being one of the fathers of the Constitution, thrice blessed be its name, amen.

IHT,

The Constitution is not now and has never been "holy".  Thinking it matters as written does not mean it is being "deified".  It means when you call a document the "supreme law of the land" that means what the document says matters.

I, for one, would love to see a Constitutional convention called and the existing document reworked or even a new one adopted from scratch.  But until that is done the Constitution, as written, has the power it has.

Good thing the Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws that could have been his undoing.

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