[Cryptography] 2nd Amendment Case for the Right to Bear Crypto

John Levine johnl at iecc.com
Thu May 12 14:46:10 EDT 2016


>So far as I know, there is *no* law prohibiting anyone in the U.S. from purchasing a bulletproof car with bulletproof
>windows.

You're probably right, but that only tells us that the government hasn't regulated them,
not that it can't.

Historically, the 2nd amendment was interpreted to refer to the state militias, i.e. the National
Guard.  In recent years the revisionist insurrectionist theory has become popular, and it's
been interpreted to refer to personal ownership of some set of weapons.  The exact boundaries
of what weapons are included remain fuzzy; shotguns are pretty clearly included, machine guns
and nuclear weapons are not.

I'm not aware of any 2nd amendment cases where the "arms" weren't conventional guns, or maybe
knives.  I understand the metaphorical appeal of applying it to crypto software, but I think
it'd be very tough to sell it to a judge.

R's,
John


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