As a person who has been operating "drones" and other remotely-controlled aircraft for over 15 years, I have two points:
1) If you are considering "self-regulating" drones, keep in mind that you do not regulate the National Airspace, the FAA does. As such, any flight that abides by FAA regulations in the NAS, especially over public lands, is completely legal and people should be free to do so. If the legal aspect doesn't convince you, keep in mind that forcefully bringing down a craft near people and equipment is incredibly stupid from a safety standpoint. These are not toys, and an out of control craft presents a significant threat to health and property.
2) For you drone operators overflying people and equipment: keep in mind that you, too are breaking not only common sense safety rules, but are breaking the community-accepted flight rules as established by the AMA. Not abiding by the AMA rules presents the hobby in bad light and also goes against our recently hard-won battle with the FAA to maintain our flight privileges. You should always establish a flight line that keeps people and equipment behind and to the side of your flight operations.