🚀 go-pugleaf

Please move the gun control discussion to talk.politics.guns.

As for the parallel with the gun issue, I think this is still valid,
regardless of one's feelings on either issue.  There will always be
a portion of the population which will engage in the prohibited
activity (whether that activity is data encryption or gun ownership).
If we accept that the individuals most likely to persist are
also those most likely to use the prohibited activity as a
means to another illegal end, nothing will have been accomplished by
the prohibition. 

Actually, that's not a fair conclusion.  Let's say "very little"
will have been accomplished by the prohibition, since it probably
*would* curtail a certain portion of the crimes these tools
facilitate..The point is that it would fail to impact the most
dedicated, and therefore most dangerous, criminals.  It would,
however, impact the basically law-abiding citizen with an
interest in such technologies.  It would also very likely infringe
on the spirit, if not the letter, of every citizen's civil rights.
-- 
Timothy R. Flanagan		timf@polari.online.com
				tim@reed.edu
I'm the ACLU, the NRA, the EFF, Pro-Choice -- and I vote.
Unfortunately, I can't find a candidate to vote for.