Drone Talking Points

Military drones have been used overseas for unlawful and extrajudicial targeted killings of
foreign nationals and US Citizens, 27 have killed hundreds of civilians, 28 including children,
and have jeopardized US national security by furthering anti-American sentiment and
destabilizing communities that are bombed. 29
Drones are easily affixed with lethal and “less-lethal” weapons. 30 And assurances that they
will not be armed domestically lack credibility, given recurring violations of supposedly
limiting principles constraining their use to kill Americans abroad. 31
A sheriff's department in the Houston area was one of the first domestic law enforcement
agencies to have a drone. Its drone can carry a 12-gauge shotgun and a grenade launcher,
and officials have confirmed plans to arm the drone with rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear
gas. 32
Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel said the Montgomery County (TX) sheriff’s office was “open
to the idea of adding non-lethal weapons like tear gas, rubber bullets or Taser-style rounds
to the drone.” 33
5. FIRST AMENDMENT / PROTECTED SPEECH
Persistent and ambient surveillance, coupled with currently expanding programs to
monitor and criminalize nonviolent activism, threatens to chill First Amendment-protected
association. 34
27 Michael Boyle, Obama’s Drone Wars and the Normalization of Extrajudicial Murder, THE GUARDIAN (June 11, 2012),
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/11/obama-drone-wars-normalisation-extrajudicial-killing; Living
Under Drones: Numbers, STANFORD INT’L. HUMAN RTS. & CONFLICT RESOL. CLINIC, http://www.livingunderdrones.org/numbers
(last visited May 8, 2013).
28 Living Under Drones: Numbers, STANFORD INT’L. HUMAN RTS. & CONFLICT RESOL. CLINIC,
http://www.livingunderdrones.org/numbers (last visited May 8, 2013).
29 Steve Coll, Kill or Capture, THE NEW YORKER (Aug. 2, 2012),
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/kill-or-capture.html; Jefferson Morley, What Drones Sow,
SALON.COM (June 12, 2012), http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/hatred_what_drones_sow/; David Kilcullen & Andrew
McDonald Exum, Death from Above, Outrage Down Below, NEW YORK TIMES (May 16, 2009),
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17exum.html?pagewanted=all.
30 Danger Info, Citizen Drone Warfare, YOUTUBE (Dec 10, 2012), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jplh7uatr-E;
aranger45, Weapon of the Future, LIVE LEAK,(Apr. 25, 2012), http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=78b_1335405606; Thyrsoid,
R/C Helicopter with .45 Caliber Handgun, LIVE LEAK (Dec. 10, 2008).
31 Shahid Buttar, Killing us softly, PEOPLE’S BLOG FOR THE CONSTITUTION (March 13, 2013)
http://www.constitutioncampaign.org/blog/?p=12499.
32 Groups Concerned Over Arming of Domestic Drones, CBS LOCAL—DC (May 23, 2012),
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/05/23/groups-concerned-over-arming-of-domestic-drones.
33 Hannah Yi, Tase of Our Lives, THEDAILY.COM (Mar. 12, 2012), http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/12/031212news-armed-drones-1-2/.
34 National Lawyers Guild, Developments in the Policing of National Special Security Events (2013), available at
http://www.nlg.org/sites/default/files/NLG Report Developments in the Policing of NSSEs at 2012 RNC and DNC.pdf.
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