this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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I mean, considering the cops are just going to play on their phones and actively stop people from trying to rescue children (Uvalde was more fucked up than most people remember), it makes sense to consider alternatives.
In all seriousness, this is actually a ridiculously hard problem and a horrible "solution". Drone weapons work best against unaware/unattentive enemies in a target rich environment. While a bunch of russians are goofing off and not even bothering to close the hatch on their tanks you fly forward with a couple pounds of explosives duct taped to the drone and detonate when you get in range.
Against a shooter who is already having an endorphin high from murdering a bunch of kids and is on high alert for if/when the cops will stop their fun? They'll hear the motors echoing through the hallways even louder than the kindergarteners bleeding out and crying for their parents who have been handcuffed for daring to try to help. They'll shoot more kids in the time it takes the drone to get to them and children gasping for breath will likely die as their airways close up from the pepper spray bombs. Or the drone will hit a kid anyway since aiming those at high speed needs VERY good reflexes and skills.
Again, we all know the actual way to reduce the number of children murdered in school shootings. But clearly The Second Amendment is more important than the death of a few thousand kids.
I’m going to disagree with you here. I think this is an excellent use of drones. If anything, Uvalde taught us that human versions of policing have one major defect/feature…they also don’t want to die.
You throw a swarm of drones whizzing into a high pressure scenario, the shooter’s fight or flight response is going to be triggered. They’re either going to pop off a few last shots…which they likely were going to do anyway before getting caught, or they’re going to run to the nearest open door and shut it to hide.
No lethal explosives needed for this use case. A few flash bangs, maybe some tear gas, a taser or two would likely do the trick in all but the most dire of situations.
Now, what this says for our constitutional rights on the other hand…at some point we as a collective society are going to have to decide whether we want to be “free” or whether we want to be “safe”. Personally, I’m none too happy with the way I’ve seen things progress over the last 24 years.
We've become less of both, free and safe. I don't see this helping either of those. Btw, I just learned that the Ben Franklin quote of liberty or safety is actually out of context and was concerning a specific situation in Pennsylvania. The general idea was, don't take away our freedom in the name of safety, give us the freedom and ability to make ourselves safe. I see these drones as an arms race to let the police do what they want to do without being in danger themselves. Oh, the kids? Well, sorry about that, shooting people is all the police are trained on.
Dallas PD were the first to kill a man with a drone because they couldn't be bothered to wait him out.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/robot-delivered-lethal-explosive-in-dallas-police-standoff-was-a-first-experts-say