Drone Warfare Declared on Wedding Gunfire

türkçe links to related Turkish article

(Sabah Newspaper, 26 October 2014)

     Airborne recon comes to Erbaa.

The Erbaa District Security Directorate, in Tokat province,

determined to stop the firing of weapons at weddings, has

decided to purchase two “multikopter” drones.  According

to district chief Abdulkadir Demir, more than 10 weapons

have been seized in the district within the past week.  He added

that “as the result of our determined efforts we are intent on

stopping this practice in Erbaa. It’s also forbidden to use

fireworks and in that regard we’ve written about 200 fines,

totaling about 20,000 TL ($10,000).”

Demir explained that they planned to use technology to

stop the wedding firings and the “multikopter” is a tool

for this: “the drones are very effective for viewing public

safety situations and we’ll  use them for many purposes. For

example, during forest fires we can easily evaluate the

status from drone photographs and video. We can use

the “multikopter” for many things.”

One of the drones will be in the hands of the police and the

other will be used by the Gendarmerie.  Demir said he has

warned wedding hall owners: “I’ve asked them to be

sensitive to this matter. Not to allow weapons firings at

weddings.”

Demir noted that police confiscated 28 revolvers, 32 bullets

and 5 hunting rifles at weddings in 2014, with the collected fines

totaling 18,216 TL. Some 77 people have been fined a total of

14,553 TL for setting off fireworks.  Two people were wounded

by gunfire at weddings this year. The drones will be purchased

two weeks from now.

            Tokat province