I don't like the idea of Homeland Security ordering stockpiles of ammunition, zero hesitation targets which depict pregnant women, senior citizens and children with guns, and 2,700 MRAP type vehicles for use in serving "high risk" warrants... and then of course there's the domestic drone program, which officially does not exist, yet.
Have you given any thought on how you would take down a predator drone?
Their flight ceilings can go from 10,000-25,000 feet depending on the model. It's not exactly something you can shoot out of the sky with a hunting rifle.
Some suggest that hitting the optical hub with a 2-5 watt laser would essentially blind it, and if you attach such a device to a rifle w/ a scope this may work assuming you can even see the thing that high up in the first place. Even blind, the drone can fly by GPS alone.
Which leads to GPS, the Iranians allegedly took down a drone by jamming the military GPS frequency LP2, this is encrypted and secure- and if the drone can't communicate over this frequency because it's jammed, it will back-up to a civilian GPS frequency that is less secure. The Iranians jammed the military GPS, and then manipulated the LP1 GPS to cause the drone to crash.
Drones may also be taken down by interference using a spark gap generator. It's basically something you can build around the house using a car battery, capacitor coil, electric motor, and antennas for the desired frequency. You're basically sending a pulse at whatever frequency antenna is on the device. Even if you built one and found the right frequency, I don't think the range would be enough to interfere with something 3-5 miles up.
There's also a company that started up about a week ago which claims to be able to passively block drone surveillance, but you have to sign an NDA before they even tell you what the technology is.
How would you deal with a drone? Would you just try to get creative and hide from them with foil blankets that hide heat signatures?
Speaking of drones, this is in the news this morning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22134898
Eric Schmidt, from the company that is bringing you Google Glass, doesn't think it's a good idea that civilians should be able to have any type of drone technology. It's perfectly OK when the only people violating your privacy are corporations and governments, but leave it to the professionals, no wanna-be big brother allowed.