[bitops]

From reading this article and the comments, I imagine that the future of drones in the US may be much the same as what we're seeing with gun control: many people will see value in private drone ownership and will be okay with regulations around them. Some people will feel that any restrictions are government encroachment and will resist it.

Most likely the vast majority of drones and drone owners will use them responsibly (yes I am being hopelessly optimistic here) and a few will abuse them. Periodically we will see horror stories about misuse of drones (e.g. Newtown) but short of a whole city being wiped out very aggressive restrictions will not exist.