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Comment by DiabloD3 | Hacker News Reader

It really does seem to be that is the position. There are a lot of backwards nutjobs in the government right now, blaming other backwards nutjobs, while the rest of us sane people are trying to duct tape society together.

Guns don't kill people, encryption doesn't kill people, backwards nutjobs kill people. Politics in America, currently, can entirely be summed up as the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme.

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More like guns either kill people or look pretty on a wall; encryption not only can't kill people, it also prevents people from stealing.

Even a nutjob armed with the latest encryption, still needs a gun to kill people.

>...encryption not only can't kill people, it also prevents people from stealing

To be fair, it can also prevent people from being killed in extremely oppressive regimes, just by association with 'x' out-topic (e.g.: the gay community).

Or a truck, or a pressure cooker, or a knife. But yes, a gun works, too.

> Even a nutjob armed with the latest encryption, still needs a gun to kill people.

I dunno, I'm pretty sure a determined enough assailant could beat someone to death with a hardcover copy of PGP Source Code and Internals.

At least, we've discovered prz's real reason for having the full source code printed. "You want a weapon? I'll show you a weapon..."

And I guess if they are really enterprising they could print off a bunch, build a potato gun analog, and go on a rampage. But then again in the time it takes to print even the single copy in some states they could go to the store and come back with an AR-15 and extended clip.

> or look pretty on a wall

or defend their owners, or hunt, or...

If I had to bet, I'd say at least 25% of US guns have been used within the past year, and 99.9% of those will not have been used to kill others.

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