🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <palmer.720804326@isye.gatech.edu> palmer@isye.gatech.edu (Michael T. Palmer) writes:

   Don't you watch the news or read the paper?  Radio even?  This is the
   argument most frequently used by the gun-banners... they say the militia
   is really the army (WRONG!!) and that the police will protect us from
   the criminals so we don't need guns oursevles (WRONG!!).

   If the government decides it wants to stay in power beyond its term, you
   think some silly election will change anything (if they even let it happen)?
   LOOK AROUND YOU!!  Worldwide, how many elections have been ignored by the
   government because the people didn't vote the way those in power wanted?
   Let's see.  Angola, Peru, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Algeria... and these
   are just the ones reported by the US media.  I'm sure there's more.  (Oh,
   Peru isn't quite right... there the president just outlawed the legislature
   and assumed full governmental authority for himself.  My mistake).

   So you see, the "vast majority" of the people will NOT agree with what the
   government wants to do, and an armed citizenry will help KEEP it accountable
   to the people who elected it.  In the countries listed above, all of which
   are in the midst of civil wars (it appears to be won in Slovenia, though),
   the population as a whole was unarmed and separate fighting units had to be
   formed and equipped (usually with outside help) to try to force the
   government to obey the will of the people.

   This is what you want?  It happens everywhere else, so don't say that we're
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^
   so "special" that it can't happen here.  Most of us are of European or
   African descent, so we have common genetic and cultural backgrounds with
   people in countries having these problems right now.


Leaps in with both feet.  Apologies for not being very sci.crypt
relevant (but see below).

I'm not only of European descent, I'm European.  In the UK, the last
time a substantial number of the population used guns to force out a
government we didn't like was 350 years ago.  And even that was odd,
in that the elected government was the revolutionists, taking up arms
against an unpopular king.

There are strict controls on firearms in the UK; the government has
always obeyed election results for rather longer than the US has been
in existence.  We can argue, if you like, about the relevance of this
observation when the fraction of the population which was enfranchised
was rather small until this century.

I freely admit that there are a *small* number of Irish people in the
UK who are prepared to kill and maim other people in order to change the
system of government in a small part of the UK.

I also freely admit that criminals can obtain guns if they feel the
need is strong enough.  "Ordinary" citizens do not feel the need, and
British history seems to be on their side.


Obcrypt:
	Does anyone have GNU-emacs macros for reading and writing
DES-encrypted files, with the key obtained from the keyboard just
before the file is opened?

Paul
--
Paul Leyland <pcl@oxford.ac.uk>          | Hanging on in quiet desperation is
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