Anyway, please stay safe and don’t be afraid to defend yourself.

  • FrostyTrichs@walledgarden.xyz
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    6 months ago

    Anyone who thinks they stand a chance against drones with a gun hasn’t been paying attention to what’s happening in Ukraine.

    Gonna pew pew a CEO in the back? Sure, guns work for that.

    Trying to save your own life against a fast and agile target that needs way less precision than you to be effective and probably never even presents a target? Nah mate, you’re fucked.

    • LostXOR@fedia.io
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      6 months ago

      Now here’s a thought… What about using drones to “take care of” a CEO? The risk of being caught would be lower, as you can be located hundreds of meters away or more. It’s also relatively easy to acquire a drone, and you can make explosives with stuff you can buy at the hardware store.

      (Disclaimer: This is just a thought experiment, I’m not dumb enough to try this, don’t worry FBI :3)

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago
        1. Drones that weigh 0.55 pounds or more must be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. If you buy a drone, you’re supposed to register it, and that puts the drone and your name into a Federal database.

        2. Every electronic device with networking capability that exists has a “burned-in” MAC address that tells you info on the manufacturer, etc. This coupled with the drones serial number can narrow down specifically which device it was and allow law enforcement to figure out which specific store sold this specific drone. Then they hit the store with a warrant for the customers, match up the drone to a name, and go.

        3. Communications with commercially available drones are generally unencrypted and easily intercepted. Triangulation of the source of the controlling unit would be trivial.

        It’s sooooo fucking easy to find someone who is using a drone if you’re serious about it. It just takes law enforcement being serious about it. Also, there’s a good chance that since you have to register it with the FAA that any crime committed with it would be considered a Federal crime.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago
          1. They’re supposed to be registered for use, but that’s something YOU do, on the website. That’s not done automatically as part of the purchase.
          2. Not all stores manage inventory at the serial number level.
          3. That requires them to be actively looking for it while you’re flying. Once you turn off your transmitter there’s nothing to track. Don’t fly near restricted airspace and they have no reason to try to fine a random drone pilot.
        • frezik@midwest.social
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          6 months ago

          Every electronic device with networking capability that exists has a “burned-in” MAC address that tells you info on the manufacturer, etc.

          You’re thinking of WiFi/Ethernet/Bluetooth. There’s plenty of radio control options for drones that don’t use MAC addresses. Some are completely analog (though there’s not many of those left), but even the digital ones don’t necessarily have MAC addresses.

          MAC addresses aren’t some government-mandated thing. They’re something the industry came up with.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Register with the FAA? Lmao
          Yes, yes. Let’s also register our crime gun before we do the crimes with it.

        • LostXOR@fedia.io
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          6 months ago

          You don’t have to register it with the FAA; you’re already going to murder someone, who cares if you break a few more laws?

          The last point assumes someone’s recording the wireless activity of the drone in the moments before the explosion, which I think is pretty unlikely. And the internals of the drone should be destroyed by the explosion, rendering it practically impossible to extract any identifying information other than the general drone model.

          And even if all wireless traffic is being recorded and triangulated, pick a busy place and you’re just one guy on your phone in a crowd of thousands. You can also order the drone anonymously months ahead of time and pick it up somewhere with poor security camera coverage to all but ensure there’s no record linking it to you.

            • LostXOR@fedia.io
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              6 months ago

              True, though you’ll probably be recorded by security cameras if you buy it in a physical store.

            • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              Buy used and pay cash, although the previous owner of the drone will almost certainly be questioned.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Drones that weigh 0.55 pounds or more must be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. If you buy a drone, you’re supposed to register it, and that puts the drone and your name into a Federal database.

          Now that Ukraine has made it clear that drones are “arms,” the anti-gun-registration 2nd Amendment people are gonna get right on that, right?

          …right?

        • sploosh@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Communications with commercially available drones are generally unencrypted and easily intercepted. Triangulation of the source of the controlling unit would be trivial.

          You’d have to be looking for it while the drone was being operated, so you would have to either monitor all the time or be tipped off that someone was coming to get you. This isn’t really a good deterrent to drone-based assassination.

          Also, drones are trivial to build on your own these days. With a few months of extremely basic electronics education, a pile of off-the-shelf components and a little iteration you can have your own “ghost” drone that you can control via RF, cell towers from a modem you put onboard, bluetooth, line-of-sight-laser or whatever. The weapons on it are a different story, but people have been improvising ways to off each other forever. It’s kind of what humans do best.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      We never see successful drone interceptions but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. Not the kind of odds I’d like to take, though.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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      6 months ago

      There are some, handheld firearms that are used as a last-ditch / cheap anti drone solution in Ukraine, by both sides.

      Drum roll…

      https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2024/analysis-shotguns-emerge-as-a-frontline-defense-against-drones-in-evolving-military-and-security-tactics

      Its shotguns.

      Because they have a spread of multiple shot pellets instead of a single bullet.

      Fucking obviously duh, they’ve been used to hunt small, evasive birds routinely, everywhere, for like 150+ years.

      Hunting a nimble flying object with a sniper rifle is a laughably absurd idea.

      This actual post from this woman is so stupid I would have thought it was from a 12 year old whose only experience with guns is from CoD… but nope, its a 50ish(?) year old woman.

      Guess she’s never hunted birds, and thinks its just the same as hunting deer or hogs or something???

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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        6 months ago

        Its shotguns.

        Using a gun with a 25’ effective range against a device hovering 50’ off the ground sounds not terribly effective, though.

        Hunting a nimble flying object with a sniper rifle is a laughably absurd idea.

        I mean, the whole idea that Iran has a 7th gen drone army it can project to the other side of the planet is laughably absurd. And yet here we are.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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          6 months ago

          Other people have already pointed out that your conception of shotgun spread is essentially based in video games, where the spread is (in all but basically milsim games) greatly exaggerated.

          You’ve countered that drones can fly higher than an actual shotgun range.

          Yep. They can.

          … Did you read the article I posted?

          Shotguns are being used fairly commonly by both sides.

          It doesn’t matter what you or I think about how practical or useful they are…

          The people fighting the war think they are practical and useful.

          Nonetheless, here’s my attempt to explain the popularity of shotguns in Ukraine as anti drone weapons:

          This is not a solution geared toward being able to shoot down any drone, of any size or capability, at any range, at any altitude.

          Obviously a shotgun is not going to be able to shootdown a greyhawk or reaper style drone.

          Most of the small FPV drones that attack infantry or ground vehicles do so by basically either dropping a bomb or grenade or mortar round from maybe 25 to 150 feet in the air…

          Or just being rigged with some kind of an explosive to explode on contact or via a remote trigger.

          (Also, these cheap FPV drones do not really handle altitudes above roughly 150 ft that well (though this will vary by exact model). Unless its a dead calm day, gusts of wind easily blow them around, draining its limited batteries as it tries to keep its position steady, severly shortening the drone’s range.)

          These kinds of drones are extremely cheap, plentiful, and effective against infantry and many ground vehicles…

          When it comes to these kinds of drones, shotguns are also extremely cheap and plentiful, and practical self defense weapons.

          Shotguns are more useful against these kinds of FPV drones than an average assault rifle, due to the spread of shot.

          They are way, way more cost effective than using a tunguska or gephard or some kind of MANPADS platform designed to shoot down jet aircraft.

          Shotguns are also just more numerous, and don’t require specialized training/equipment like a dedicated AA platform or EM jamming and all the equipment that entails.

          You can just give a few out to every squad or vehicle crew, and thats way, waaay better than just hoping you’re operating near enough to an expensive friendly AA platform that exists in far more limited numbers, or being SOL if you’re not.

          Further, a shotgun is also just useful as a general combat weapon.

          Sure, buckshot has limited range, but sometimes fights occur within tight conditions… namely trenches or an urban environment.

          Also slug rounds exist and can give you more range than buck or birdshot.

          Also you can use door breacher rounds, or slugs in a pinch, to blow apart door hinges and locks.

          • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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            6 months ago

            You put a lot of effort into trying to teach someone who is clearly dedicated to not learning anything. I appreciated the information at least.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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            6 months ago

            You’ve countered that drones can fly higher than an actual shotgun range.

            Yep. They can.

            I’ve also noted that a lot of these sightings are of airplanes, satellites, and stars.

            Also you can use door breacher rounds, or slugs in a pinch, to blow apart door hinges and locks.

            I’m sure Betelgeuse is terrified.

        • styxem@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          A quick Google search shows birdshot has an effective rang on the order of 40 - 50 yards. Now, you still have to be competant with a shotgun, but the public perception of shotguns is generally skewed. They have a much tighter spread and longer range than movies and games would have one believe.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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            6 months ago

            A quick Google search shows birdshot has an effective rang on the order of 40 - 50 yards.

            Show me a shotgun with an effective range and I’ll show you a drone with a higher flight deck.

            • groet@feddit.org
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              6 months ago

              This is about drones that are cheap and can shoot you with a bullet. Sure a +1M$ drone will kill you from behind the horizon, but a repurposed consumer drone operates on the same ranges as handheld guns and as such could be shot by a handheld gun. If you can hit it, which is why you use a shotgun to increase your ods

              • grue@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Are the cheap drones really shooting people with bullets? I was under the impression they just had small explosives strapped to them and were single-use.

                • JayDee@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  you’re correct, they do not strap guns to improvised attack drones. they’re not necessarily single-use either, though. A kamikaze drone will detonate its payload while its still attached, which is an option. There is plenty of footage of IADs which use a servo to just physically drop a payload onto targets from above, and those could potentially be used over and over. I think the kamikaze version is able to be more effective, for a variety of reasons, but both versions seem to be seeing use.

              • JayDee@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                it’s not necessarily with a bullet. Most improvised attack drones drop explosive payloads, since it’s both simpler to set up and simpler to use. Outfitting a drone with a gun takes making a complicated system for aiming it, while a payload drone just needs some 3d-printed parts, some extra wiring, and usually just a single servo.

              • krashmo@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                I’m guessing you mean just the disposable kind of drones popularized in Ukraine? We’ve been dropping hellfire missles from Reaper drones at 10,000+ feet for a couple of decades now.

          • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Depends on the choke. A 12 gauge full choke turkey gun can probably put a pretty tight pattern that range, but it’s gonna work better with bigger shot. If you want super fine shot and a full pattern, you aren’t shooting that far.

            • JayDee@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              GarandThumb did some tests in a video a while back. IIRC he did both choked and not, along with different types of shot and slugs. everything but birdshot was pretty effective out to a couple dozen yards? I’ll track it down and drop a link after I’ve rewatched.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I have 10 or so shotguns, of all sorts. None of them put out much spread at 25’. That would almost be too close.

        • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Using a gun with a 25’ effective range

          Translation: I know fuck all about shotguns beyond what I’ve seen in movies and video games.

        • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          25’ against what, humans?

          I got news for you, birds that get shot are usually more than 25’ away.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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            6 months ago

            Someone with fishing line, a soldering iron, and a box of cheap pellets can make a net that will take out all commercial drones

            I would love to see the Rube Goldburg Shotgun you think you’ve invented and watch you try to fire it (from an extremely safe distance). Please post that shit to YouTube and share it, because god damn dude. Fishing line and cheap pellets shoved down the barrel of a shotgun for the purpose of butterfly netting an MQ-1 Predator?

            Lolz. Lmao, even.

            You have displayed a large amount of ignorance here.

            Happy Hunting!

            • frezik@midwest.social
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              6 months ago

              Please stop, you’re embarrassing yourself. Yes, you can jam all that stuff in a shotgun shell and make a crude anti-drone shot.

              No, it’s not going to be an MQ-1 Predator (which is bigger than many WWII fighter planes), but nobody said that, either. Most of the drones in Ukraine are the size of a DJI Phantom.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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                5 months ago

                Most of the drones in Ukraine are the size of a DJI Phantom.

                The US manufactured drone weapons that have been coming over for the last two years are significantly larger than the DJI Phantom.

      • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Ive heard and seen some images and videos of soliders building their own antidrone ammo. They rip the tip off the casing and heat shrink a coulple of bbs together and crimp them to the casing. I’m not certain how legitimate or effective it is but I’ve seen several videos and images of it. They recomend staggering the homemade rounds with tracer rounds to help with aiming.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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          6 months ago

          Hah, I suppose that could work!

          Reminds me of ratshot .22 rounds.

          Maybe somebody will start properly manufacturing basically ratshot 5.56 rounds.

  • RangerJosie@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    GovCo owns the drones. The simple fact that they haven’t shot them down means they own them.

    This is a distraction. It’s to distract people because for some reason there was a sudden unexpected explosion of class consciousness.

    Stop talking about the fucking govt drones. Keep scaring billionaires.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The one I saw a picture of was a manned helicopter. (Flying in a legal area too … which is why they aren’t being shot down near a military base, because if they were a threat, in air they weren’t allowed to fly in… They would be intercepted or shot down)

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    While I’ve seen first hand how the powerful have attempted to manufacture consent around the CEO’s assassination, their efforts are clumsy, uncoordinated, and haphazard. Like most conspiracy theories, this one fills all the gaps in plausibility and evidence with a “they” who are hyper competent with foresight bordering on omniscience.

    • groet@feddit.org
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      6 months ago

      Picture might be real but the person is not. No humanity inside. Just a husk wearing a human skin, spreading hate

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    So there’s a lot of things about these drones being Aliens (and a lot of things about Aliens in general).

    If they really are aliens, do you think beings who travelled here through interstellar space and the technology to come to earth within (we assume) a single lifetime are going to be felled by a fucking gun?

    I don’t think the Aliens are hostile because if they were, we’d be dead by now.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    To be fair, the military bases being buzzed drones thing has been going on for months now, long preceding the assassination of Brian Thompson. Like honestly maybe six months or more, I casually peruse the conspiracy subs, because occasionally they get something half-right. (Like the first I heard of COVID was freakouts about what was happening in China) But yeah, the dozens of drones buzzing military bases has been going on since long before Brian Thompson went down.

    It’s more that there’s an excuse to focus on it now to draw attention away from the fucked healthcare system. It troubles me a little bit that people can’t piece together that the media conveniently ignores all kinds of things until they need something else to focus on.


    Finally, you’d have more luck with a laptop and cyberwarfare.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–U.S._RQ-170_incident

    The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it, after initial reports from Western news sources disputedly claimed that it had been “shot down”. The United States government initially denied the claims but later President Obama acknowledged that the downed aircraft was a US drone. Iran filed a complaint to the UN over the airspace violation. Obama asked Iran to return the drone. Iran is said to have produced drones based on the captured RQ-170 including the Shahed 171 Simorgh and Shahed Saegheh.

  • underwire212@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Ok but the UAP shit is pretty crazy tbh. And almost no one talks about it. Something is going on.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      And almost no one talks about it.

      Most people don’t care to entertain the confusing, fantastic claims.

      ‘red, glowing UFO the size of a football field’ hovering at low altitude over US space launch base in California - in event witnessed by over half a dozen military personnel

      Crazy how nobody thought to snap a picture.

      Something is going on.

      People are blowing smoke up your ass is what’s going on. But because they’re lying to the faces of a bunch of incredulous Congressional hacks, it’s supposed to be something we take seriously.

    • ghen@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Because we’re all so sick of it. If there ever was going to be any proof then we would have found it via leaks, The James Randi prize money, or even heck Trump’s first presidency when he said he was going to leak all those secrets.

      It also doesn’t make any logical sense for anything outside of our world to have enough scientific know-how to get here undetected and somehow be seen floating around by random people using just their eyeballs.

      It’s stupid, boring, and used as a distraction for stupid boring people.

      • kungen@feddit.nu
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        6 months ago

        But when people take out their phones and the object gets focused/close enough to see, it morphs into an airplane or such. Like, these aliens have such good technology to be able to morph, but they only do it whenever someone is able to document the sighting?! Crazy stuff!!! 😱

      • underwire212@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        There’s far too much circumstantial evidence and credible testimony to simply conclude that it’s all “a distraction”.

        We’re talking about numerous firsthand whistleblowers, many of whom have risked their careers, reputations, and even their safety to share their experiences.

        Nobody’s saying we know exactly what’s going on, but writing it off as “stupid” or “illogical” because it doesn’t fit neatly into our understanding of the universe is shortsighted at best. The fact that something defies our current scientific understanding doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It means there’s more to learn. Calling it boring might say more about your own curiosity than the topic itself, and to dismiss the topic entirely is incredibly insulting to the many whistleblowers who, again, have risked a great deal to share what they know with the public.