Is everything going to be a felony these days? Why? It attaches serious long term consequences, because a FELONY is widely regarded as a crime of direct, major harm against a person.
Flying a drone that actually causes a collision, sure, maybe that's a felony. Just getting caught in the area, because the pilot is curious and maybe never even /heard/ of this law? No, that's not a felony, in my opinion.
It’s already a felony to impede emergency rescue efforts. And rightfully so: it places lives directly at risk. It’s intuitively illegal, and intuitively grave. “Curiousity” wouldn’t be an excuse for getting in the way of normal firefighters with an RC car, would it?
Why is impeding emergency services any less serious because it happened via drone?
When someone flies a drone over a wildfire, they often don't even think they're doing anything wrong, and firefighting aircraft have to be all suspended until they can find the pilot and get them to stop flying, or otherwise prevent it from being in the area anymore. It's a threat that's a lot more difficult to mitigate.
I smell knee jerk legislating. Just amend the existing law if new power is needed to prosecute the existing law. Don’t make a new law for every new thing.
I’d argue it’s more serious as there’s less skin in the game for the perpetrator.
It's not like someone parking in front of a fire hydrant. In that case the fire fighters may just break your windows and run the hose through your car.
Considering that drones have prevented planes from flying over with fire suppressant, this very much does meet the standard of causing harm.
This would ensure that all drone operators have basic knowledge of what is expected of them (such as “don’t fly a drone over a wildfire”), and make it straightforward to fine/prosecute operators who are flying without a license.
If the majority of operators are responsible, educated, and respect the rules, it could even help relax some of the rules around drone operation in the long run.
"a misdemeanor is a lesser offense, punishable by imprisonment for up to a year."
Is a year in prison a "joke"?
A legal theory that says "I trust the authorities to ignore the law when I think they should" is a terrible theory.
Would you support drunk driving laws that let drunk drivers who don't injure anybody off with a small ticket equivalent to a parking ticket, and only those who injure someone get their license revoked, jail time, etc?
Would you support a system where the state can find a reason to arrest you whenever they feel like, and arbitrarily enforce it against people they don't like?
Knowing all the laws would be difficult. Knowing all the laws about your hobby, that apply where you engage in it should be simple.
I don't believe this "no one can claim ignorance of the law" argument either. It's not like the government goes out of its way to teach people the rules or their rationale. The government shouldn't be able to simply invent some random rule and start arresting people.
Presumably pilots are required to learn them.
There was huge efforts to education people about drunk driving, and we've ramped up the penalties over time.