Coming to a town near you: hunting licenses for drones?

Yep, that’s what the hamlet of Deer Trail—in Colorado’s Eastern Plains—is considering following a proposal from a resident who says he doesn’t want the unmanned aerial vehicles in the sky above his town. “We do not want drones in town,” Phillip Steel, the man who drafted an ordinance that would offer drone hunting licenses and bounties, told Denver’s KMGH. “They fly in town, they get shot down.”

The seven-member Deer Trail board will consider the ordinance on August 6. If approved, the license would cost $25 and be valid for a year. Of course—since it’s illegal to destroy federal property—it’d be a purely symbolic measure that likely is more about attracting attention, and some cash, for the town. “Even if a tiny percentage people get online [for a] drone license, that’s cool,” one of the town’s board members told KMGH.

According to the station, the ordinance reads: “The Town of Deer Trail shall issue a reward of $100 to any shooter who presents a valid hunting license and the following identifiable parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle whose markings and configuration are consistent with those used on any similar craft known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government.” The ordinance also says that shooting drones would be limited to “any shotgun, 12-gauge or smaller, having a barrel length of 18 inches or greater.” Among the requirements to be eligible for a license, an applicant needs to be at least 21 years old and has to “read and understand English.”

—Image courtesty of Shutterstock