Finally, Some Sanity on Drones

As I've mentioned elsewhere in this blog, the FAA has authorized the use of military surveillance drones by local law enforcement agencies. I was, of course, outraged about this; but even more outrageous was the lack of outrage (so to speak) from just about everyone else, outside of the liberty community.

Fortunately, someone in Washington has found the courage to say "This is not right" and introduce some legislation. Foxnews.com is reporting that GOP Rep. Austin Scott has introduced a bill that would ostensibly curb the use of drones for surveillance on US soil.

Unfortunately, Mr. Scott's bill only seeks to limit the use of drones, rather than ban them entirely. As stated in the linked article, Mr. Scott's plan would only limit the use of drones to cases where a warrant is issued; or in warrant-less surveillance at the border, or in a terrorist attack. As we know all too well, however, such broad exceptions leave the door open far too wide for abuse of those exceptions.

I call on Mr. Scott to amend his proposal to ban surveillance drones outright from use on US soil.