Out of curiosity - how do people who employ these marketing tactics reconcile this? do they drink their own Kool-Aid or do they willfully turn a blind eye to the grey/blackhat clients because they don't want to think about it?
So why doesn't the same apply to these phones vis-a-vis the 1st Amendement? Sure, you could use the phone for drug transactions; but that's not what it was designed to do; just like you could use a car to carry drugs, but that's not what it was designed for.
Well you used to be able to buy cocaine at the corner store, too, but cooler heads eventually prevailed.
And lots of people simply like guns and have fun taking them out to the shooting range.
Ibid.
And absolutely you're 100% correct. The vast majority of owners are law-abiding and just enthusiasts who like customizing and shooting their semi-neutered human killing tool at the range. Hey, I agree, the AR-15 is cool looking and fun to shoot in "safe" environments.
However, humans are unpredictable, unreliable bags of irrational emotions. The future is going to be marked by a steady removal of humans from things they are unreliable and unsafe at doing (ie. driving, etc). If you think 100 years from now Bob is going to be driving himself to the range to go shoot whatever absurdly powerful handheld-railgun-type-instrument-of-death exists in the future I'd say you're comedically on the wrong side of history.
Let me get this straight, some hypothetical extremely dangerous future weapon might exist and so not allowing ownership of that is like banning the most popular rifle in the United States because it's marginally more 'dangerous' than your hunting rifle?
... and therefore much like the future weapon which lacks a very obvious practical use case, beyond sport shooting/fun, then expecting it not to get banned .
If the OP didn't intend to communicate such a position then he chose a very poor way of stating it.
Does your state have a hog problem?
>humans are unpredictable, unreliable bags of irrational emotions
Ya, but not really. Death by mass shooting is so rare, like winning a big jackpot in the lottery rare. There are so many opportunities for humans to make mischief and commit violent acts day in and day out, yet they don't. The only reason mass shootings get so much attention is because it is so rare. Guns in America aren't going to go away anytime soon. 100 years in the future, maybe, but with the advent of cheap 3d printers that can create firearms, and the fact that there are simply so many firearms in the US already that will essentially last forever with minimum upkeep, the future may be just as full of guns as ever.
Not to mention there will likely always be a community of enthusiasts. Just like 100 years ago, some people predicted no one would ever need to use horses in the future, but today, millions of people have horses. As noted in another HN article, today, there are more available models of fountain pen and ink than ever before, even though fountain pens were obsoleted many years ago.
So yes, I think it is very likely that some people will drive themselves to a shooting range with their vintage non-self driving car and shoot off some rounds.
There are plenty of compelling, imperative moral arguments I could make for meaningful gun control, but this isn’t really one of them and if anything it waters down the case.
Do you feel the individual's right to privacy should prevail over the public interest in monitoring for illegal activity? Then you'll have no issue building strong crypto products.
Drugs should be legalized and people should be allowed to grow their own supply? A entire family of products...
And yes, some people really do believe that cheap guns save lives and protect individual freedoms...