WELLESLEY FALLS, Mass.  Todd Smirsky is a highly-successful bond trader for Vulcan Capital Management and the stress of his work week leaves him longing for quiet on weekends.

Dad and son share quality drone time in furnished basement rec room.

“I’ve got people screaming at me all day long,” he says as he rolls his neck trying to relax a bit on a Thursday night.  “All I ask is for a little peace on Sundays.”

Say your prayers, you little varmint.

But the somnolent silence one expects in a leafy-green suburb such as this is broken by the sound of high-pitched barking produced by Fifi II, the miniature poodle owned by next-door neighbor Myrna Flores who lives alone in the home she shared with her late husband for forty years.  “Hey Evan,” Smirsky calls out to his son.  “Time to fry the poodle,” and his ten-year-old joins him in a race to the basement where a finished rec room includes a fully-equipped, state-of-the-art control deck to launch UAV’s–unmanned aerial vehicles–more commonly known as “drones.”

 
“Poodle in cross-hairs.  Initiate attack?”

“Can I go first, dad?” Evan asks as the two take their seats, and with a fatherly pride that causes this reporter’s eyes to mist up just a bit, Smirsky says “Sure, kiddo.  With straight A’s on your report card–you’ve earned it.”

Civilian use of drones as an alternative dispute resolution tool is growing, according to Defense Department budget analyst Ray Humpling, a former Air Force fighter pilot.  “At some point it makes more sense to sell than to trade-in,” he says as he checks prices for new and used UAV’s on sellyourweaponsofdeath.com, an on-line forum where western nations can list old weapons for sale to ordinary folks with around a hundred thousand dollars to spare.  “These things are really popular in goo-goo states that ban fireworks like Massachusetts,” he notes. 

Incoming!

Flores hears the drone coming over the seven-foot high “spite fence” she put up after Fifi I died mysteriously last spring, and moves quickly to secure her premises.  “I know boys will be boys, but this is getting expensive,” she says with disgust as she shoos her little dog into the kitchen.  ”I called the UN and they said there was nothing they could do about it.”