You knew this was going to happen sooner or later

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

Quad copter rigged with a Glock 19

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqHrTtvFFIs

[HiTemp]

Sure. People will do anything to make a You-Tube video go viral. What we don't see on the video are the fired rounds hitting anything.

Personally, I've always thought it was a stupid effort to try and arm a quad copter since the mode of attack one would have to use would make the drone extremely vulnerable to countermeasures. There is a video on You-Tube showing a drone trying to get live footage of a house fire and the idiot filming/flying decided to zip his drone in too close for the firemen's comfort. They turned a hose on it but they hadn't adjusted the nozzle to a full steady stream, yet it made the drone wobble and would have put it out of control had the flyer not immediately flew it out of range.

Arming a drone in the manner shown on the video would mean the attack profile would have to be a low hover or a steep pitch attitude that could not be held for even one second before the drone moved the muzzle off target due to forward flight. High chance of miss using that mode, so the more reliable would be the flat, low approach. Even a garden rake would take it out of the air, as would a jacket or a rolled newspaper. And I doubt seriously anyone hearing it approach is going to stand still waiting for the shot. Seems to me nearly improbable unless it was approaching someone seated from behind who wouldn't turn around to the sound of an approaching weed whacker. I don't know anyone like that.

Also, the instability of these drones from the recoil would make follow up shots difficult, I'd say almost impossible if the target is moving or rolling. The time spent trying to reacquire a target is time against you considering the 911 calls would be starting and you still have to recover the drone or give it away as evidence that would almost certainly identify the shooter.

If I was going to arm something flyable it would not be a quad copter. I think it would be better to arm an airplane with several broad tip arrows on the leading edges and one on the spinner, maybe a metal prop too and just fly it FPV right into the target. Yeah, that leaves the evidence, but you'd be planning that ahead of time and would likely take precautions to keep your DNA off of it and wouldn't use store-to-purchaser materials. Old flea market engine and parts, etc. Wouldn't be as lethal perhaps, at least not right away, but it's fly and get outta Dodge rather than hover, shoot, maybe hover and shoot again, fly back, pack up, and leave.

If it had to be lethal and RFN than nothing would beat an explosive along with a flammable accellerant to do the job. You wouldn't be able to pack a pipe bomb and a quart of gasoline on a quad copter whereas you could pack a LOT into a medium sized model airplane. Also, the lethal radius would be much bigger, so even a near miss could still get the job done.

And... just for clarification to gummint 3-letter agencies who will certainly read this, this is speculative only; I certainly do not nor would not support any effort to actually perform those actions, just discussing it as intellectual exercise.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

I imagine after playing with my cousins a little, a larger more effective version could be made, you could put the pistol on a gimbal and slave the camera to it with a rudimentary sight system, yeah its not going be a hunter/killer from terminator, but it would be plenty lethal, especially using something like a 5.7 instead of a 9mm. The cost and actual usefulness makes it questionable, they are not anything close to silent despite the rhetoric about them, by the time they are in effective range they are easily heard, seen and vulnerable.

Of course the benefit of a quad is you don't have to have a runway nor much skill to use one, you can take off from a car roof, program way points from google earth GPS coordinates.

I kind imagine a lot of way these could be done, but I just wanted to mention someone actually did it.

[HiTemp]

If a video is showing up on YouTube showing someone has actually done it, I would believe a couple dozen people have already done it that didn't film it. Still, I think it would be near miraculous for someone to actually pull off a shooting with one. As you point out, these things are not silent and I doubt many people would hear one flying right at them and just stand there gawking while the payload is trimming to find center mass. Arming a drone and firing a bullet is one thing; hitting something with the bullet is something else, and interestingly we have not seen a video of that yet.

I also wonder if the video will now aid in defense of drone shoot-downs. I heard the drone coming, saw what I thought was a muzzle below it, felt in fear of loss of my life/great bodily harm so I continued pouring #4 buck shot into it until it was no longer a threat. What I thought was a muzzle turned out to be a camera lens, but I didn't know that at the time.

I could see a case like that happening. Remember here in FL we have Angela Corey and other ladder-climbing DAs ready to swoop in with an indictment despite state laws preventing arrest in certain circumstances. I'm sure someone would demand equal justice for the drone, maybe even end up with the shattered drone as an art piece making a statement on race relations like the Michael Brown Face Down exhibit in Chicago.