By Futurist Thomas Frey
When police arrived at a rural Texas property last spring, they didn’t expect the sky to start shooting. The homeowner, a self-described “DIY freedom engineer,” had rigged a drone with a pistol mounted on a stabilized gimbal, using remote triggers and live video to “protect his land.” He wasn’t aiming at anyone—just demonstrating—but within minutes, neighbors panicked, social media exploded, and the FAA called it a federal crime. “It’s my right to bear arms,” he told reporters. “Nobody said I couldn’t make them fly.”
A few months later in Ohio, another case made headlines. A retired machinist had built a humanoid robot—waist-high, battery-powered, programmed to patrol his garage. The robot carried a taser. When a burglar tried to break in, the robot deployed it, shocking the intruder just long enough for police to arrive. The homeowner became an overnight hero online—and a legal nightmare in court. The local prosecutor asked a piercing question: Who exactly used the weapon—the man, or the machine?
These stories frame the next great constitutional frontier: What does the right to “bear arms” mean when the arm can bear itself?
Continue reading… “The Second Amendment Meets the Machine Age: When Weapons Bear Themselves”
