A new piece of legislation that would make it legal for anyone to shoot down drones hovering over their property has been met with opposition from law enforcement and others who utilize UAVs.

The Defense Against Drones Act will permit “individuals to use a legally obtained shotgun to shoot down a drone if they believe it is flying at or below 200 feet above their property,” according to a recent press release from Congressman Tim Burchett, who introduced the legislative proposal on Capitol Hill.

“[The bill] allows Americans to protect themselves, their property, and privacy against drones. I introduced this legislation after hearing from folks in East Tennessee concerned with unknown drones flying over their homes,” he said in a statement to Roll Call.

The bill has not found a co-sponsor and has met opposition from officials in the law enforcement community and most of the UAV industry.

“While effective counter-UAS (cUAS) solutions are essential, this approach raises serious concerns,” a spokeswoman for the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, Casie Ocaña​​​​, told Roll Call.  “It is illegal to interfere with aircraft, including drones, for many good reasons. As we saw in New Jersey during December, manned aircraft — including general aviation planes, commercial airliners, and helicopters — were misidentified as drones.”

“Making it legal to shoot down drones would not only undermine airspace security but also create significant safety risks for all airspace users and those on the ground,” Ms. Ocaña said.

Much of the opposition to the bill so far is coming from law enforcement agencies, some 2,000 of which have and regularly use at least one drone. Another 16,000 departments are said to be considering adding UAVs to their arsenals.

“Usually, agencies will wind up getting budget money for drones when they find a missing young child or missing elderly person who most likely would have died had it not been for the drone, and that happens on a weekly basis,” the president and chief executive of the Law Enforcement Drone Association, Jon Beal, said. While he said he appreciates the attempt to give people a chance to protect their property, he called the new bill potentially dangerous.

“Most drones have legitimate reasons for being in the airspace,” he said. “Those cases that come across when people get arrested for drone crimes are few and far between, and there are millions of drones out there in the U.S. that are operating both for commercial purposes and for hobby purposes.”

The bill was drafted in response to increased drone activity across the country. In February, officials with the Tennessee National Guard told state lawmakers during a budget hearing of multiple incidents where drones were spotted flying above military installations, including two sightings at McGhee Tyson National Guard Base last fall, according to WATE 6 News.

The spate of sightings occurred around the same time as a wave of mysterious drone sightings flooded the eastern seaboard, many centered around New Jersey. The Trump administration said in January that most of the drones sighted were authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. Burchett was among the many who sounded the alarm over the cluster of sightings and even said he believed the White House and national security officials were not being entirely forthcoming about the source of the mystery flights.

“I don’t think they have control of it,” he said in an interview with NewsNation. “[T]hey don’t know what to do, so they’re just going to lie.”