As Amazon works to launch a fleet of delivery drones, one man in Colorado is making it his mission to shoot them downâlegally.
Philip Steel, whom Stephen Colbert has deemed a âcourageous patriot,â has never seen a drone. But heâll be ready when he does. In the next few years, Steel postulates, commercial drones will be Enemy No. 1. Hovering a few feet in the air, theyâll watch, record, and analyze Americansâ every move. Call yourself a non-smoker on your health insurance? A surveillance drone will soon prove you wrong, he says.

On Tuesday, Steelâs hometown of Deer Trail, Colorado, (population: 532) was poised to vote on an ordinance he wrote in July, one that would legalize drone-hunting licenses and allocate âbountiesâ for people who shoot down the aircrafts. Owing to a citizen protest, which moved the issue to district court, the vote has been postponed to April 2014.
âItâs been a joyous couple months,â Deer Trailâs town clerk and treasurer Kimberley Oldfield joked to The Daily Beast Tuesday. âNobody wants to take on Phil, so they take on me.â
What makes taking on Steel so difficult, in part, is that his staunch defense of the proposed ordinance is based on some inaccurate assumptions. According to Steel, the FAAâs 2012 Reform and Modernization Act (PDF), set to take effect in September 2015, will permit civil unmanned aircraft systems to infiltrate private airspace, all the way down to ground level. An alarming thought indeed, but one not based in reality. Drones wonât be flying over our backyards anytime soonâif ever.
The FAAâs legislation, which focuses on regulating large drones which will fly alongside the likes of 747s, will not allow these drones to fly below the national airspace (which begins at 400 feet). And it will only allow small ones to fly on a stringent case-by-case basisâfor reasons like agricultural research, archeological mapping, and rescue efforts. Surveillance drones wonât be permitted to enter that zone without first obtaining an authorization certificate, which can take months.
The courageous patriot, it seems, is fighting an enemy that doesnât exist. (Steel could not be reached for comment.)
Despite these facts, Steelâs fight to shoot down the commercial drones of the future rages on. The tagline on his website, which he launched in July, reads: âIf you don't want your drone to go down, don't fly it in town!!!!!â On his site, he sells $25 homemade âlicensesâ to shoot and kill drones (they bear no actual authorization).
âThe federal government will control all [with drones],â Steel writes on DroneShooter.com. âWe will serve a ruling elite who has already exempted themselves from any laws that they may pass.â The list of freedoms weâre in danger of losing, in Steelâs eyes, are endless. ââDo you like to shoot? Hunt? Play softball?ââ he asks. ââDo you want to build a house or barn?ââ
Beyond uprooting our basic human freedoms, Steel predicts the drones will be used to enforce âany law.â Including, he told Colbert, âObamacare.â
For many in the unmanned aircraft community, Steelâs mission seems ridiculous. Beyond the fact that heâd be shooting down drones that may be used for goodâarcheological mapping, crop dusting, rescue effortsâfounder of the Professional Society of Drone Journalists Matthew Schroyer worries about safety. âI wonder about the safety of discharging weapons in public in the open air and the consequences of falling drones on property and individuals,â Schroyer notes. âI think that the reality of drones that we might see it in the future will become more associated with farming equipment,â he zYz. Meaning the good of these dronesâbelow 400 feet or otherwiseâis likely to outweigh the bad.
Tuesdayâs vote on the ordinance wouldnât have been the legislationâs debut. Steel unveiled his pride and joy in front of the town council in an unforgettable performance earlier this year that included a costume, nerf gun, and the theme song to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. (The performance was captured by The Colbert Report; it begins at 4:55).
The town council members, whose expressions range from baffled to disturbed in the video, ended their vote in a tieâleaving the final decision up to the town itself. But as the December 10 vote neared, town resident Jessica Stoumbaugh felt it was a verdict too big to put in the hands of the 523 residents of the Deer Trail. So Stoumabugh launched a citizen protest, which eventually landed it in district court. Now, Deer Trail town clerk Kimberly Oldfield says, the district judge will need âa final finding of petition sufficiency,â in order to set the election. âThe town board would like to see it go to the people,â she says.
While the court wrestles with the handling of the ordinance, Phil Steelâs likely to be found perched on the tree-house like structure heâs built to practice shooting drones with a shotgun. Perhaps repeating the message he sent to Obama during his Colbert special: âGo back to Kenya.â
A statement nervously followed by his own question: âHeâs from Kenya, right?â