Future Tense

Meet Johnny Dronehunter, Shotgun-Toting Defender of American Privacy

In the not-too-distant future, privacy will be a thing of the past, with drones roaming the skies and keeping tabs on the American public like the subjegated citizens of Panem. With a real-life Katniss nowhere to be found, who will be the only hope for us in this bleak, dystopian future? A tattooed vigilante named Johnny Dronehunter and his silenced shotgun, apparently.

That’s the premise of a new—and particularly absurd—ad from Utah-based company SilencerCo for its new supressor line, the Salvo 12. In the hyperbolic promo (which you can watch above), our hero is seen chasing down a drone via car before he pulls over, grabs his large, silenced shotgun, and blasts the hovering symbol of tyranny right out of the sky. When five more drones close in, they meet a similar fate. Johnny Dronehunter does one thing exceedingly well (and quietly), and that’s hunting drones. Sorry for the spoiler.

According to SilencerCo CEO Josh Waldron—who was interviewed via email for the Vice blog Motherboard—the company “created Johnny Dronehunter and intend to continue a series of videos in this vein with him as the main character to represent the Americans who feel they don’t have an appropriate voice in this privacy debate.” As well as to, presumably, increase the sales of what SilencerCo is calling “the first commercially viable shotgun silencer.”

There are, of course, a numbers of flaws in this general premise—like, for instance, is a suppressed shotgun really the optimal weapon for hunting drones? Also, why would there be a cluster of drones in the middle of the desert? That seems to be an especially wasteful use of surveillance resources. Mostly, though, given that the use of government drones on American soil is an issue that demands to be taken seriously, fantasizing about blowing them to pieces doesn’t seem to lend itself being an appropriate voice in what should be an important and thoughtful debate.

Plus, not for nothing, but shooting down a drone is, by all accounts, almost impossibly hard to do.

But hey, sick silencer, Johnny.