Wyoming senator Bruce Burns—a pro-firing-squad, pro-medical-marijuana Republican—argued that armed drones could help police officers deal with tricky hostage situations. “I’m also picturing specific circumstances where let’s say you have a hostage situation and a drone is the only place where you could get a clear shot at the hostage taker and I think that would be a very beneficial use of the drone itself,” Burns said.
His state senate colleague Larry Hicks said that domestic killer drones could come in handy when cops need to stop a school shooting. Therefore, he didn’t want to risk imposing a blanket prohibition that would hobble noble police drone usage.
Sens. Burns and Hicks did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment. The full legislature will consider the drone bill in January.
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