Back in the days before quad copters when r/c aircraft (as drones were called then in the UK at least) took some skill to fly a lot of bozos might have wanted to fly one, but frankly couldn't be arsed with acquiring the skills.
Of course now quadcopters are incredibly easy to fly. Especially high end ones which are pretty much fly by wire. And they are so easily available and of course cheap.
Already there's a lot more regulation in most countries than only a few years ago. But these regulations seem to be largely ignored by pilots and go unenforced by the authorities. Take the UK laws on flying near crowds, built up areas or roads, how often do you see those being adhered to? How often do you see then being enforced? However I suspect that it will only take one fatal accident for that to change to the extent that the sale and use of drones will be all but outlawed in that particular jurisdiction. Whether it's at a city or country level will largely depend on the size of the event. If a drone kills an individual on the ground then they will probably be outlawed in that local jurisdiction, but should one take down an aircraft resulting in multiple deaths then you can expect a ban at national level.
If you think they won't be effectively banned following such an event you need to consider three things. Firstly policing the things effectively in most countries where they are legal is just not happening and it would be much easier and cheaper to issue a ban on all but licenced commercial use than it would be to improve policing of their use. Secondly the majority of people seem to dislike drones, so whipping up an outcry to ban them won't be difficult. And finally politicians love a kneejerk headline grabbing blanket solution rather than a reasoned response, they can tell the population they have taken decisive action.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
