From talk.politics.guns: > As an intellectual exercise, people who use this phrase should > think about their favorite leisure time activity and try to > think of reasons (however irrational) other people might think > that activity has no legitimate reason to exist. If you need > help, send me email and I'm sure I can demonstrate. WHEREAS: personal computers are the "instrument of choice" used by outlaw computer hackers who break into private company computer systems, AND, whereas personal computers are used for word processing, or freely publishing whatever material critical of government policy, or critical of another person as the author may choose, AND, whereas such published material is often sent while the author is still "hot under the collar", Now be it resolved that personal computers, typewriters, and other word processors should be strictly controlled in the following manners: 1) A seven-day waiting period should be instituted whereby a check can be ran on the computer purchaser to see if he/she has any record of mental disorder or criminal or misdemeanor offense. This will also give the would be author a chance to "cool off" and reconsider whether or not to publish a heated letter that might upset some government bureaucrat's delicate little ego. 2) After background checks have been performed on the prospective computer purchaser, said computer shall be duly registered with the government, and shall be kept on the premises of a computer club, under lock and key. The computer owner shall not transport the computer from the club premises without prior permission from Howard Metzenbaum or Teddy Kennedy. 3) No computer should be sold having a hard disk of more than 500,000 bytes. Disks of 20, 40, 60 and 80 megabytes capacity permit far too much space to store inflammatory and anti-government material, which can be dumped to a printer in rapid-fire fashion. Such computers are "assault computers", and have no place in a polite society. 4) Fast speed printers shall be prohibited. Such printers enable an amateur author to literally bury the opposition in reams of paper. This amounts to the government being clearly "outgunned", or outpublished by a disgruntled citizen author. 5) Portable word processors shall be prohibited. They are too easily concealable, and can be carried aboard airliners where it is all too easy for the author to whip-up a heated letter while enroute to the next destination. These, cheap, easily concealable instruments serve no other purpose than to assassinate the characters of innocent people. 6) Floppy disks shall be carefully imprinted with a magnetic tag which will be a unique identifier, easily traceable in the event of illegal use. No floppy disk of more than 300,000 bytes will be permitted. Present owners of such disks will have until six months after enactment of this article to either register, destroy or render them inoperable. 7) The government shall have authority to enforce this act by any means it sees fit. Once denied a permit to purchase, the citizen shall have no recourse. Police are empowered to invade a private dwelling to confiscate suspected contraband. No warrant is needed for enforcement of this act. Failure to comply with any of the above requirements shall result in up to 5 years imprisonment, and up to a $10,000 fine. Prison overcrowding shall not be an excuse for not imprisoning a violator of this act. A resident felon shall be placed on parole to make room, in such event. Reasons for support of this act are offered as follows: These modifications to existing computer ownership are mild controls that will significantly reduce illegal use of personal computers, while at the same time protecting rights granted under the First Amendment. No "individual" right was intended by the framers of the First Amendment. "Freedom of the press" was clearly intended as a "collective" right granted to an organized press, such as a newspaper or magazine publisher. Further, the "right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances" is clearly not valid in this case. Assault computers are clearly a vicious threat to the public, and therefore warrant dispensation of whatever right was intended by this phrase. Therefore, no recourse shall be made available in the courts or through the legislature. Such grievances introduced in any court of law shall be immediately determined to be "frivolous", and be immediately dismissed without consideration. It is proper that no "mindless" appeal to the Constitution about some imagined right be recognized, in this case. No "individual" right was intended by the framers of the Fourth Amendment, either. The right of the "people" to be secure in their personal dwellings and properties is merely a "collective" right granted to whomever those same "people" happen to be, as mentioned in the First, Second, Ninth and Tenth Amendments. It has already been established that the Second Amendment is not a right of the "people" at large, but a right of the States to assemble a militia. Perhaps, the "people" mentioned in other amendments are these select persons comprising the several state militias. Therefore, only those serving as members of a state controlled militia have any right to be secure in their personal properties, especially personal "assault" computers. Whatever was meant by rights not enumerated in the Constitution, as contained in the Ninth Amendment, clearly does not represent any imaginable right granted to any individual. Again, the "people" referenced here are those same "people" mentioned above - either the organized press or the organized militia. These very mild proposals are indeed a minor tradeoff for the incalculable damage done by illegal computer use, even if only one would-be computer hacker is stopped by them. No prospective computer user can be so immediately in "need" to purchase a computer that he/she cannot wait a mere seven days (or forever), unless he/she is intending to use it in an unlawful manner. No body "needs" a computer so badly they cannot wait a mere seven days to take possession of it. No body "needs" a computer that is capable of storing more than 500,000 bytes of information on its hard disk. No body "needs" a fast printer capable of printing over 300 characters per second. Such computers serve no amateur, or "sporting" purpose, if you will. ######################################################################## "On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p322. ########################################################################