About two dozen protesters gathered in Atlanta to protest the use of drones by the U.S. government for spying, surveillance and carrying out lethal attacks.

The demonstrators rallied Tuesday outside a hotel where representatives from academia, industry and government held a technical conference on unmanned aircraft systems.

Protest organizer Bob Goodman of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition says that "in the wrong hands," drones can be used for "lawless and destructive" practices.

Conference organizers say the protesters might have misunderstood the purpose of the conference, which they say is focused largely on civilian use of the technology, such as for wildfire monitoring or emergency response.

Tags: Protest, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones