We're back to drones again this week and it's something for airsoft players who use camera equipped drones to capture airsoft game play to know about. U.S-based drone owners will have to take note that soon they may have to register their drones with the Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) as a response to growing concerns about the dangers of unhampered use of drones in the civilian sector. With more and more drones going up in the air for commercial and recreational purposes, the skies will soon get crowded, and the risks of accident to people on the ground and planes in the air will be greater.

Last Monday the US Department of Transportation and the FAA held a press conference announcing that some consumer drones will need to be registered even if they are used for medical, commercial, rescue, or recreational purposes. Registering the drones would allow officials to investigate the owners in case of any accident involving a drone.

With the upcoming Holiday Season, drones are said to be one of the desired gifts by those who like gadgets, the government are in a hurry to have the guidelines for registration in place by then. According to the press conference, plane pilots have seen drones twice more frequently than in 2014 and drone ownership is growing at a fast rate.

For owners of drones that are deemed to be "low safety risk"" such as those toy drones that can land on the palm of your hand may not need to be registered. But so far, the authorities will still need to establish what type or classification of drones will have to be registered. Once those are established and guidelines for registration have been released, it will become retroactive and drones already purchased before the registration requirements took effect will need to be registered too.

The Department has partnered with the industry and modeling community to initiate "Know Before You Fly" outreach campaign which will provide information to owners on how to fly their safely. The FAA also has an ongoing "No Drone Zone" campaign and testing an app that owners can use if there are restrictions or requirements in locations where they want to fly drones.

The U.S. government is the latest amongst governments around the world that is coming to terms on the need to regulate civilian drones due to safety concerns.