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Feds Investigate Dystopia-Hastening Teen Who Posted Video Of Gun-Shooting Drone
By
Nathan Tempey
Published Jul 19, 2015
Modified Jul 19, 2015
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By
Nathan Tempey
Published Jul 19, 2015
Modified Jul 19, 2015
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Connecticut's Austin Haughwout, 18, is facing scrutiny from the feds after he reportedly rigged up a drone with a handgun and filmed it shooting off rounds in the woods. The teen hails from the town of Clinton, a half-hour east of New Haven, and his father told local news station WFSB that he made the contraption with a Central Connecticut State University professor, after researching to make sure he wasn't breaking any laws.
Connecticut police told reporters Haughwout is in the clear at the state level, but the Federal Aviation Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are probing how the thing got built, according to WFSB.
Milford, Connecticut man on the street Michael Ruscoe pretty much summed up our feelings with this nugget of wisdom:
"The next to last thing we need is guns that people can send flying around," Ruscoe said. "There's no accountability for it. Someone can be flying this thing from God knows where."
Seriously, the world is plenty scary with the U.S. government secretly assassinating American citizens by drone strike without due process, and maniacs shooting up movie theaters, churches, and military bases with regular old-fashioned firearms. It's hard to think of something good that could come of enabling anybody with a grand to spend at Walmart to send weaponry airborne.
But there's no holding back the future, only wondering what it will look like. Will drug cartels duke it out with the DEA and each other using quadro-copters? Will the default mode of a bored youth shooting his eye out be from above? Does the Second Amendment cover bearing arms remotely?
This isn't the first time Haughwout's drone use thrust him into the spotlight. Last year, he made the news after a woman, upset with him for buzzing over a beach with a camera-equipped drone, beat him. Prolific YouTuber that he is, he caught the altercation on camera.
Haughwout did not immediately respond to requests for comment made by phone, and through YouTube and Facebook.
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