If a robotics company starts making drones that come armed, you can bet that they’re going to be marketed to the military, not to you and me.
While I think we should be able to buy dual-machinegun-weilding drones that look like the Terminator if we want, and do so without jumping through a bunch of hoops, the reality is that we’re not likely to see that happen.
But, Americans are an enterprising lot, and even if the drones you can buy aren’t armed, we’ll put a gun on it because American, baby!
That’s apparently too much for Massachusetts lawmakers, though.
From climate change to economic instability, Massachusetts residents face a range of potential threats. State lawmakers say a flamethrower-wielding android shouldn’t be one of them.
The Massachusetts House is poised Wednesday to pass a bill that would ban people from outfitting robots with guns, explosives, or other weapons, and make Massachusetts the first state in the country to place such guardrails on drones and other unmanned devices.
Some of the new requirements would fall on police, too, as the use of robots grows in law enforcement, both nationally and in Massachusetts.
House Democrats are pushing the legislation as robots quickly become a common feature in everyday life: Drones buzz the skies for panoramic pictures. Mechanical dogs assist medical examiners in their work. Some restaurants have replaced call-takers with AI-powered automatons.
But the prospect of widespread robot use — and videos cropping up online showing some modified with attached guns — has generated concern in the robotics industry and among state lawmakers about its proliferation turning deadly.
Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and government relations at Boston Dynamics, said the House bill creates a “common sense framework” for the responsible use of general-purpose robots.
Boston Dynamics and a handful of other robotics companies pledged four years ago not to add weapons to their automated or remotely controlled devices. But this would be the first time legislation specifically prohibited weaponizing robots, “and I think that’s super important,” Schulman said.
“Massachusetts leads the country and the world in robotics technology. We feel that Massachusetts should also lead in the governance structure for the responsible use of robotics,” he said.
The House almost unanimously supported the bill, which isn’t a great sign, and neither is the fact that Boston Dynamics wants us all to know that despite making cool robots, they ultimately suck.
Look, this is beyond moronic.
There are no drones being sold to the public weaponized. That means regular people have been doing it because it sounded like a cool idea, or they saw someone else had done it and thought it looked fun.
To date, so far as I’ve been able to tell, not a single one of these have been used in any criminal endeavor. In other words, everyone in Massachusetts is freaking out because someone might put a weapon on a drone at some point in the future and might be able to do something illegal with it, and because they might do that, everyone needs to be banned from hooking their gun to the drone they got off Amazon.
Never mind the fact that if someone wants to hurt another people with a weaponized drone, it’s not like the law is going to stop them.
It’s also not like it’s really a viable way to target someone for any criminal activity. Robbery kind of sucks with one because the DJI drone you’re piloting from a few blocks away doesn’t have hands and can’t take someone’s wallet or empty a cash register. Murder isn’t even a great plan because it’s not like these drones are quiet, nor is aiming going to be a simple thing with one of these puppies.
In other words, it’s mostly a non-issue and even if it were, nothing they’re doing will actually stop someone with nefarious intentions.
But, this is Massachusetts. If there’s a terrible idea out there, they’re bound to give it a try.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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