“I’ve been in this hobby in one form or another since before I could ride a bicycle. It’s been there to take the edge off of life and allow a temporary escape from one’s daily grind for as long as I can remember. This hobby is what makes life tolerable, and any amount of new regulations would only serve to punish the lawful. I’m not a wealthy man, and often the hobby doesn’t happen because the parts aren’t in the budget, and that’s just the flight requisite systems! Now I’m to buy, maintain, power, and carry a “remote ID” as well as GPS, which is likely expensive, poorly optimised (for electrical noise) heavy, and power hungry and neither of which my quadcopters or rc aircraft have ever needed or been equipped with for operation. Fine, maybe *I* will attempt to jump through those hoops (as I’m no beginner and rely so heavily on this hobby for mental health), but there is very little chance that a prospective participant (newbie) wouldn’t be repelled by a further and significant increase of the equipment price as well as the addition of plenty of government red tape just to do things like fly around private property (with permission) in guarded operations! The problems that the FAA say theyre concerned about? They were NEVER an issue until companies such as DJI came onto the scene with Ready to fly and Self piloting models that required no more than $1,000 and a sporting goods store. The problem isn’t the equipment, the problem is that the combination of easily available and “everything you need (except common sense) included in the box. I *really* dislike the idea of licensing as the FAA will no doubt see it as a cash cow in need of juicing, BUT the requirement to demonstrate a minimal level of proficiency to fly (carry a card) or buy equipment (input license number) would eliminate all but the users who are maliciously and blatantly disregarding the law (and its a safe bet that no amount of regulations will stop or even effect that group) A drone flying where it isn’t supposed to be? chances are that it’s not registered anyway….. Who’s going to administer the tests and deal with the logistics? Why not the EXISTING AMA? they already do 95% of those tasks anyway (like the “wings” system from back in the day (with MAAA in Australia) with several levels of competency up to and including the instructor and inspector ratings) It works perfectly well for the HAM guys! They (flite test) sell this as a ” the FAA isn’t corrupt, they’re just really bad at their job and don’t know or care that you exist” when in reality i think that it’s more likely that they’re simple corrupt and will bring in these new laws no matter how much the effected (non corporate!) demographic(s) protest it; After all, their corporate lobbyists such as Amazon (and others) have no doubt paid very well to purchase the (currently uncontrolled) airspace for their for (practical purposes) exclusive use. Please see the reason and common sense that’s beyond the lobbying dollars and don’t make any more ineffective laws that will unanimously destroy not only a hobby, but also a variety of currently operating non corporate commercial applications. FCC does their thing through places like the ARRL and successfully solves the problem of unqualified or educated operators without regulation on the equipment of the licensed operators. I see zero reason why the FAA and AMA couldn’t or wouldn’t follow the same model.”