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Comment by vnkr | Hacker News Reader

Cloudflare is a tool. Website owners use this tool to solve the challenges they face. You are shouting at a wrench.

Cloudflare is a company that makes the tool. We're not shouting at the wrench, we are shouting at the maker of the wrench.

We have no problem blaming the tool and manufacturer when it comes to firearms.

We have no problem blaming anyone, rightly or wrongly. Twitter is a fountain of blame, there's enough for everyone.

You can blame me, I think. I haven't done it yet, but I can see the day coming where one of the sites I maintain will move behind Cloudflare. That site gets too much shit. The other day Little Bobby Tables browsed the site, and it wasn't the first time. I have to choose: Deal with the low-level shit or require javascript from a bunch of users who mostly have that enabled anyway. So blame me, and all the site operators who face the same choice.

Yes. And judging by how many Americans die of gunshot wounds each year, and how many guns are sold, and the profits of the major gun manufacturers - how successful is that "blame the tool and manufacturer" strategy?

(Or is "success", for the anti-gun crowd, mostly about winning performative virtue contests in their own social media bubbles - while tens of thousands of "99.9% of 'em aren't like us, so we only pretend to care" people die?)

MEANWHILE, back at the Greatest Hypocrite Playoffs - I clicked on the link in a browser with cookies and js blocked. The article's web page (at Imgur.com) only says:

   "If you're seeing this message, that means JavaScript has been disabled on your browser, please enable JS to make Imgur work."

(Privacy Badger & NoScript say they're blocking cookies from 6+ domains, and js from 12+ domains & subdomains. I know of Cloudflare-protected sites where allowing cookies from 1 domain and js from 2 subdomains are plenty to make them work right.)

It is very successful outside the US.

If I lived in the US I'd want to own a gun too - based on the political, social and economic climate.

Well...by my impression, "blaming the tool and manufacturer" is a rather simplistic and childish way of describing most of the successful national gun control strategies.

If you moved to the US, I'd suggest being very wary of gun ownership. That can feel very empowering. And it's pretty cool in a lot of social circles, kinda required in a few, seen less favorably in many others...but, unless our culture wars turn into actual shooting wars, there are few places in the U.S. where both (1) foreign-born people settle by choice and (2) gun ownership is net plus for the safety of your self and your family. (And (2) is dependent on you not merely owning a gun, but being fairly experienced in securing/handling/using it, plus pretty savvy about if/when/how to use it.)

Is it? Which countries are safer than Czechia or Switzerland, both known for high gun ownership and liberal concealed carry laws?

Czechia has very good multi-level gun laws where ownership is based on competency and mental health. I wish we had that in the US.

That's right, but that only furthers the point that gun manufacturers aren't to be blamed.

Marketing in the US by gun manufacturers has become much more violent over the decades. That is well within their blame.

Shouldn't the government regulate gun-related advertising, then? I have trouble assigning all blame to corporations playing by the rules. Those who set the rules wrongly are to be blamed, IMHO.

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