Is there some way to get a proposal to the FAA for an amateur radio style license? I really think this would be a good solution. Some sort of licensing is inevitable. What I'm concerned about is the license being massively time consuming, and / or financially restrictive. I don't want to see two weeks off work or several thousand dollars to fly a sub $500 quad. The ham radio community has proven that, a process of getting a basic license that's not extremely difficult is enough in itself to keep 95% of the problem people away, the ham radio community is self governing enough to report people without licenses or law breaking hams to the authorities on their own, and that the volunteer coordinators do an excellent job of testing new hams so that the FCC doesn't have to pay folks to do that. Convincing the FAA that *WE* are going to do that well may be a bit of a hurdle. Some sort of organized petition may be a good idea.
Do you think we could get 100,000 wrangled up to petition the White House (not in house here, but once we got out there)? I know it's not exactly the presidents thing, but federal agencies are under their jurisdiction. We need 150 to get searchable. I think we could get that much. Maybe that's too big of a plan, but I really think we gotta get this idea out there.
