“Drones designed to do the bidding of ordinary people can be bought online for $300 or less… They can fly autonomously, find locations via GPS, return home with the push of button, and carry high-definition cameras to record flight,” the Washington Post reports.

“Besides wedding stunts, personal drones have been used for all kinds of high-minded purposes — helping farmers map their crops, monitoring wildfires in remote areas, locating poachers in Africa… But not every flier is virtuous. There are videos on YouTube of people arming drones with paintball guns.”

“Right now, drones operate under the same rules as radio-controlled planes. Commercial use is not legal… Congress has mandated that the Federal Aviation Administration come up with rules by 2015 to integrate drones into the nation’s airspace. Hobbyists are supposed to fly the devices below 400 feet.”

Crossposted from Wonk Wire.