THE UTAH WAY WITH DRONES: SHOOT ’EM DOWN

Utah lawmakers’ proposed solution to getting recreational drones out of the way of emergency response units? Shoot them out of the sky. The flying devices interfered with aircraft fighting more than a dozen wildfires last year, according to the U.S. Forest Service. In 2014, they interfered with just a few fires. Two Republican lawmakers in the state are proposing similar bills to change that. State Sen. Wayne Harper, a Republican, put forward a bill that would allow law enforcement to “neutralize” drones, which could include shooting them, jamming their sig- nals or convincing their operators to move them. A legislative committee debated his proposal Thursday, but postponed a vote after questions from the public. These include: How could law enforcement tell the difference between a recreational drone and a commercial drone when it’s hundreds of feet in the air? The sponsor of the other bill, Rep. David Lifferth said he came up with the idea after hearing of numerous incidents in which law enforcement had to stop fighting fires because drones flew too close.