JonKoppish,
I agree with your analogy of someone taking your plane and walking away. If someone intentionally shot you down they are responsible. If it's an accident then the case becomes very murky and I really don't know what the fair solution is.

I disagree with you when you say, "It's one thing to say it guys but when your plane is laying there in pieces that you saved months and maybe years to get then I'll believe you". That is when your not thinking clearly at all. This thread affords us to think it through without the emotions of having just lost a plane.

The bottom line is there is no clear cut solution to this problem and hence the proliferation of threads on the topic.

As Matt stated earlier the answer is radios that can't be shot down i.e. digital spread spectrum and the sooner the manufacturers start selling them the sooner the price will drop so as anyone with an $800 dollar plane will be motivated to buy one, ending this discussion. Hopefully when we're old guys sitting around tables at the field we'll talk about the old days when you'd get "shot down" and newbies will ask us what that means.