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View Full Version : Is the Academy of Model Aeronautics about to become an NRA villanous side-kick?




XNavyNuke
12-20-2015, 05:34 PM
We all know that the NRA and other gun owner organizations are vilified and have "blood on their hands." Is there an new upstart waiting in the wings? An organization who opposes "common sense restrictions" by their vocal minority membership? The new masked villain (no capes!) is none other than the Academy of Model Aeronautics. The other AMA.

Hold Off On Registering Model Aircraft (http://amablog.modelaircraft.org/amagov/2015/12/17/hold-off-on-registering-model-aircraft/)


The Council is considering all legal and political remedies to address this issue. We believe that resolution to the unnecessary federal registration rule for our members rests with AMA’s petition before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This petition, filed in August 2014, asks the court to review the FAA’s interpretation of the “Special Rule for Model Aircraft.” The central issue is whether the FAA has the authority to expand the definition of aircraft to include model aircraft; thus, allowing the agency to establish new standards and operating criteria to which model aircraft operators have never been subject to in the past.

In promulgating its interim rule for registration earlier this week, the FAA repeatedly stated that model aircraft are aircraft, despite the fact that litigation is pending on this very question. The Council believes the FAA’s reliance on its interpretation of Section 336 for legal authority to compel our members to register warrants the Court’s immediate attention to AMA’s petition.

Does pissing off normally apolitical geeks seem like a good move? I suppose there is a Mothers Against Drone Driving out there somewhere. This has been tried before. Take a trip back in time to a podium in 2003 - Sens. Schumer and Lautenberg, normally found waving around a tacti-black phallic symbols, instead stood beside a firm, silver steely dan, of a size and girth to cause the vapors.

In 2003, dem' dar' terr-ist was a gonna get us wit model rockets!

Handful of Hobbies Cause Homeland Headaches (http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/09/11/handful-hobbies-cause-homeland-headaches.html)


Schumer called the Enzi bill "legislative lunacy" that would "create a new loophole that lets terrorists and criminals accumulate large amounts of the same kinds of explosives that the Unabomber and other terrorists have used."

Hobby rocket measure under fire (http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/hobby-rocket-measure-under-fire/article_b325e15f-1489-5d0c-8184-6376e7f5b2b0.html)


Under the law, hobbyists must spend $100 to get a permit, undergo a background check and be fingerprinted before buying rocket fuel. Enzi, who launched hobby rockets when he was in high school, says the regulations would make it virtually impossible to enjoy the hobby.

In that case, Tripoli and a bunch of other rocket groups decided to confront the ATF in court.

A Cult of Backyard Rocketeers Keeps the Solid Fuel Burning (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/science/14rocket.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&)


This year, the subculture itself is on the defensive, unsure whether it will soar or come crashing down in a “cato” — lingo for a catastrophic failure. Since Sept. 11, the rocketeers, about 6,000 nationwide, have had to contend with tougher restrictions from the federal government and local fire marshals, and are involved in a seven-year-old dispute with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over their use of a propellant.

Eventually the rocketeers would prevail in court, and with a few allies in the halls of Congress, have managed to tamp down new restrictions. Needless to say there hasn't been a single model rocket attack anywhere in the country.

Let us hope that the geeks can bond together again and re-direct the dronaphobia that is sweeping the nation.

XNN

sparebulb
12-20-2015, 05:38 PM
I'll bet they wouldn't feel that way about registration if they had a family member killed by a drone.

pulling BXM/Texican's slack today

XNavyNuke
12-20-2015, 05:41 PM
pulling BXM/Texican's slack today

That's so sweet of you!

XNN

Anti Federalist
12-20-2015, 07:06 PM
I'll bet they wouldn't feel that way about registration if they had a family member killed by a drone.

pulling BXM/Texican's slack today

You are a Great American®

TheTexan
12-20-2015, 07:20 PM
Schumer called the Enzi bill "legislative lunacy" that would "create a new loophole that lets terrorists and criminals accumulate large amounts of the same kinds of explosives that the Unabomber and other terrorists have used."

Wow, the model rocket industry is in dire need of some common sense safety legislation, like banning model rockets.

sparebulb
12-20-2015, 08:04 PM
Wow, the model rocket industry is in dire need of some common sense safety legislation, like banning model rockets.

"There ought to be a law".

That which is not specifically permitted, shall be strictly prohibited.

I'm tellin' you, it's catchin' on.

Danke
12-20-2015, 08:11 PM
Wow, the model rocket industry is in dire need of some common sense safety legislation, like banning model rockets.

I thought they already pass legislation after this inccedent:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k13jFY9zC4

That could have been a passenger airline.