I've seen a couple of comments about my point about state-run parks not allowing guns in, which would seem to be an interesting case of the state limiting Second Amendment rights on territory it controlled. (I won't push this much further, as the state may also limit firearms in courthouses, in Federal buildings, and so on. Jusitifiably, I might add. But this does make the point that the state-as-employer or state-as-property-manager may do things that seem to directly limit constitutional rights.) Anyway, several comments have focussed on _little_ parks, those little patches of grass and winos and spent syringes in the nation's cities. What I was talking about were the biggies, like the Forest of Nisene Marks, right next to my house, starting on the ridge on the other side of the valley from me. Tens of thousands of acres....hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails. Get caught with a gun in that park and face jail time. Of course, hikers and bicyclists sometimes get mugged, raped, and murdered in this park, so carrying a gun in one's fanny pack makes a lot of sense. "Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6," as the famous saying goes. Interestingly for newcomers to the list, it was putting out this piece of common sense opinion that got me a threatening phone call from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office in the summer of 1995. Seems that someone read my opinions and contacted the authorities...a Sheriff's Deputy called to warn me that my opinion verged on the illegal (oh yeah?) and that he might send a "vehicle" out to my place to have a chat with me and check out my state of mind. When I said something along the lines of, "Fine, but call in advance, so I'll know it's your boy," he flipped out, started furiously typing on a keyboard (I could hear it), and said something like "That comment has been entered in your file as a threat against a law enforcement officer." At that point I told him that there was then no point in talking to him further, if my truthful comments were to be declared "threats." (I guess, as some have argued here recently, I was supposed to have said something like, "Thank you, officer, for pointing out the error of my opinion that hikers and bicyclists ought to take steps to defend themselves. I understand now that weapons are not to be owned or carried by citizen-units, and that a woman facing rapists on a mountain trail should simply dial 9-1-1 at the nearest payphone and wait for the police to arrive. I am sorry I expressed an opinion in these Beknighted States.") --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."