From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 08:48:52 +0800
To: Tim May <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: New Brady Bill Implications
In-Reply-To: <199812011936.LAA23593@smtp.well.com>
Message-ID: <199812020013.QAA20073@smtp.well.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 01:14 PM 12-1-98 -0800, Tim May wrote:
>As for the privacy implications of the instant check system, I abandoned
>the NRA a few years ago when it began pushing this instant check system
>(and also when some of its leaders were lukewarm in their support of gun
>rights). It was obvious that it would lead to a fully computerized gun
>registration system, as indeed it has...duh! The NRA claimed it would not,
>but now they are busy getting ready to sue the FBI and other law enforcment
>agencies to force them not to retain the information they get from the
>instant check system. Duh, again. (This was all foreseeable to anyone with
>half a brain.)
>
>The country now has the beginnings of a national gun registration system,
>courtesy of such "useful idiots" as the National Rifle Association.


I was chatting for a while this afternoon with Larry Pratt of GOA
(http://www.gunowners.org/). He pointed out that the NRA's compromising
stance is not new. They've supported many, many pieces of gun control
legislation since around the 1930s. Today at their press conference, a
phlanx of NRA reps stressed that they really want this instant check.
Necessary for law enforcement, whatever.

The NRA is the CDT of the gun world.

Remember when CDT's staff (before they left EFF) cut a deal on the Digital
Telephony/CALEA bill and endorsed it? Now, years later when some of the
provisions kick in, they're upset that the Justice Department wants more
power than the law allows.

Same thing's happening here with the NRA. What a surprise.

-Declan