FAA probing video of drone-mounted handgun firing

HARTFORD, Conn., July 20 (UPI) -- The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating a YouTube video showing a handgun being held and fired by an aerial drone in Connecticut.

The "Flying Gun" video, posted to YouTube by Austin Haughwout under the username Hogwit, shows a handgun -- identified by Haughwout in a Reddit post as a Keltec PMR-30 -- mounted to a homemade multirotor drone firing four times in a wooded location believed to be in Connecticut.

The uploader said the apparatus measures more than 26 inches from the muzzle of the gun to the rear of the frame.

The FAA said it is investigating the video to determine whether any laws were violated.

"The FAA will investigate the operation of an unmanned aircraft system in a Connecticut park to determine if any federal aviation regulations were violated. The FAA will also work with its law enforcement partners to determine if there were any violations of criminal statutes," an FAA spokesman told CNET.

Comments made at an industry event in 2013 by Jim Williams, the drone regulator for the FAA, appear to indicate that firing a weapon from a drone would be against the law.

"We currently have rules in the books that deal with releasing anything from an aircraft, period. Those rules are in place and that would prohibit weapons from being installed on a civil aircraft."