[4899] in WWW Security List Archive
Re: Fwd: Britain to ban free use of crypto
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Donald Sivori Jr.)
Wed Mar 26 02:35:02 1997
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 23:32:37 -0600
From: "Donald Sivori Jr." <don_sivori@psislidell.com>
Reply-To: don_sivori@psislidell.com
To: Jacob Rose <jacob@whiteshell.com>
CC: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Jacob Rose wrote:
>
> > <USELESS_COMMENTARY>
> > Doesn't it make you feel even BETTER knowing that the British
> > gave up their guns? Losing PGP is going to be the least of
> > their problems... it's sad, people never learn.
> >
> > "Thank God for gun control. Where would the government be without
> > it? Run by the people maybe?"
> > </USELESS_COMMENTARY>
>
> Just what we need, comparison of crypto to munitions. Remember how we
> keep telling Them they're unrelated? There's a reason for that. Guns are
> designed to kill people. Crypto is designed to secret information. You
> can't commit murder with an encryption algorithm. You can accidentally do
> so with a gun.
>
> PS. Okay, so let's suppose you have a gun. The US Army is just
> a'shakin' with fear in its tanks, helicopters, and missile silos.
> Guns aren't useful in "anti-tyranny" activities any longer -
> they are only good for killing other peons. I think, therefore
> I oppose personal arms.
>
> PPS. The murder rate in the UK and Canada is less than that in the
> Washington, DC.
>
Crypto is lumped in with Munitions only because the government
perceives a national defense and security interest in controlling its
availability and use. That national security interests are sometimes
pursued contrary to individual liberty, or frequently form the excuse
for attempts to curb liberty provides ample testimony to the wisdom of
the first ten ammendments to the US constitution, not the least of which
is the second.
PS. Small arms are the most useful in opposing tyrany, from the small,
but more common tyranies of criminal assualt to the large tyranies
perpetrated by governments. The US Army, with all its tanks,
helicopters, and missle silos does not at all savor the thought of
fighting house to house, building to building, room to room in an urban
environment opposed by armed citizens aroused to the ardent defense of
their own homes. The effectiveness of small arms fire against infantry
was amply demonstrated in Mogadisu.
PPS. When the social and demographic conditions in the UK and Canada
match that of Washington, D.C. comparison of crime statistics may become
valid. None the less, murder rates in the UK have varied little in the
last hundred years in spite of increasingly restrictive gun laws. What
has changed is the rate at which illegal arms find their way into
private hands, which has steadily increased as UK gun laws have become
more strict.
