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Comment by king_magic | Hacker News Reader

I'm aware of that, but it's extremely, extremely unlikely that this drone is carrying any sort of missiles. I can't prove that for certain, but let's be realistic here. The government could in theory drive a ballistic missile launcher hidden in an 18-wheeler into any major US city - should we not allow trucks on the road?

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Pointing a gun at someone is a threat even if you say it's unloaded. The US government should not be threatening its citizens.

> The government could in theory drive a ballistic missile launcher hidden in an 18-wheeler into any major US city - should we not allow trucks on the road?

This is a straw man, the Predator is a weapons platform, nothing is being hidden here.

A police helicopter manned with police officers with long guns is a weapons platform too. What's the difference?

Police helicopters don’t regularly kill dozens of people. The helicopter is more akin to a cop walking around with a sidearm. Still not great, but less overtly threatening.

Drones don't regularly kill dozens of people in the US either.

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE

That’s a false equivalence. The difference with your truck argument is that this air vehicle is specifically designed to monitor and shoot missiles at targets (“extrajudicial killings” is the phrase used). A truck carrying a missile launcher is different because trucks weren’t created will the express purpose of carrying missile launchers.

Except there's simply no way (short of the US falling into a total dystopian future) that someone is going to launch a missile on the Mall of America this week from this drone. Again - let's be realistic here.

> should we not allow trucks on the road?

Perhaps not ones designed for carrying ballistic missiles.

Though this still isn't a perfect comparison because it ignores the fact that drone usage can be targeted to individuals, which is a factor that makes it more dangerous in our context of homeland operations.

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