Weapons on the Web, and mention of remailers

This is from http://techweb.cmp.com/ng/online/current/specials/guns/guns2.htm

Lots of misinformation and disinformation. Perfectly legal items are
referred to as "banned." Scare tactics about silenced machine guns, sniper
rifles, and even "speed loaders to load all of the cylinders of a revolver
at once" (horrors! does the author know that every gun store I've ever been
in sells these things for about $6 each?).

One quote even refers to "our" technologies: "It might seem that the
contents of rec.guns alone could be easily monitored for illegal
transactions. However, my sources have shown me that with the availability
of anonymous remailers and several sources of digital cash, it is
increasingly possible for seller and buyer to never know who the other
party is or where they are."

(This of course is nonsense, about the digital cash, etc. If one exchanges
an item in physical space, at least for now there is some mailing or
shipping nexus. (Anonymous drops in storage lockers are a possibility,
though ripe for stings.) Certainly I have never heard of a digital cash
transaction for a gun...and not for a lot of other things, either.)

In view of the Paladin case, the Feinstein "bomb-making instructions ban,"
and calls to shut down gun shows, this article may give some tips on coming
actions. And the plans for the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug
Administration to start cruising the Web looking for illegal speech also
provides a clue.

Personally, I'm beginning to think

--Tim May


--begin quote--

Threaded Chat
The rec.guns group is a bit like a combination of Town Hall and Market
Square in Firearms Land. People sound off about government regulations, at
any level, in any locale. Disgruntled users warn others about substandard
products. New members ask advice and old hands compare notes on match grade
ammunition. Once I saw an advisory posted to all people who had bought
surplus East German ammunition. This writer had acquired an old East German
technical manual that showed the exact chemical composition of the
propellant charges in their bullets. It included a warning that after 5
years, the charges could chemically degrade and become subject to misfires
or dud rounds, a useful thing to know about if you happen to be holding
some of said ammunition, certainly. There are also quite a lot of messages
on rec.guns on the best legal way to buy a gun online (decidedly not the
procedure followed by Z and many others).

But rec.guns is also a marketplace: long banana clip magazines (usually
30-40 shot magazines for semiautomatic rifles that were banned under the
Assault Rifle ban; of course, all these are advertised as being
manufactured "pre-ban"), speed loaders to load all of the cylinders of a
revolver at once, equipment for hand-loading one's own ammunition, and, of
course, guns: revolvers, semiautomatic pistols, rifles, shotguns, and
others. One night while writing this article I saw a Galil for sale. The
Galil is an Israeli-made assault rifle, rated as one of the best in the
world. On an earlier visit I saw an ad for quantities of Dragunovs. The
Dragunov was the standard issue sniper rifle for the Red Army. In the hands
of a sharpshooter, such a gun can be accurate to within inches at ranges
out to 2/3 of a mile. And given the present state of the economy in Russia,
we are likely to see more, not less, of any of the standard Russian
weapons, Dragunovs and others.

It might seem that the contents of rec.guns alone could be easily monitored
for illegal transactions. However, my sources have shown me that with the
availability of anonymous remailers and several sources of digital cash, it
is increasingly possible for seller and buyer to never know who the other
party is or where they are.

That becomes even more of a concern on the World Wide Web, where, just as
all other forms of advocacy and commerce are flourishing, so are firearms
advocacy and sales. The NRA is online; everyone knows their position. At
Sniper Country/Extreme Shooting Sports, the motto is "happiness is a
confirmed kill," and you can learn all about famous and infamous snipers.
At Shootin' Stuff you can read comparisons of handguns for home or self
defense use, including the Makarov 9mm, the sidearm once issued only to
officers in the Red Army. You can even download images of slugs being fired
from a stationary rifle held in a vise.

If this puts you in a buying mood, you can travel over to Stokes's Firearms
Enthusiasts' Web Magazine, where a graphic of a silenced submachine gun
greets you. When I first went to this site earlier this year, it was open
and anyone could peruse the ads and offerings; now, however, a password is
required.

For those who lack patience or don't want yet another net password, there
are sites that offer immediate access to their ads. The Champion Firearms
Home Page, Guncraft Sports Web Pages, and the Electronic Gun Shop are all
open for business now. They offer, variously, revolvers, semiautomatic
pistols, rifles, and shotguns. It must be emphasized that there is nothing
illegal about any online gun commerce; there are existing laws and
regulations that do cover the situation. But when UPS, however unknowingly,
delivers 9mm pistols, it is clear that ignoring the existing rules is
accomplished rather easily online, a point that applies for any other sort
of online commerce, whether presently regulated by law or not.
...

--end excerpt---

At 9:46 AM -0700 11/13/97, Tim May wrote:

>In view of the Paladin case, the Feinstein "bomb-making instructions ban,"
>and calls to shut down gun shows, this article may give some tips on coming
>actions. And the plans for the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug
>Administration to start cruising the Web looking for illegal speech also
>provides a clue.
>
>Personally, I'm beginning to think

This got sent before I finished this comment. Here's the rest:

Personally, I'm beginning to think that "regulation of commerce" will be a
major tool for controlling the Web and the Net in general. Under the
precedent that commercial speech is not as protected as, say, political
speech (*),

(* though even political speech is coming under pressure, as shown by
"campaign finance laws" which limit the speech rich people or corporations
may exercise in support of others or of causes)

we may seet "bots" patrolling cyberspace looking for mentions of contraband
items, looking for evidence of offerings of items for sale, and checking
for illegal claims, false advertising, etc.

Some of us, like me, are fairly open about our viewpoints, our lifestyles,
and our supplies of guns and other such things. In fact, I view my "up
frontness" as one of my best protections.

But others will fear that comments made in rec.guns, or rec.pyrotechnics,
or rec.woodworking (*), will generate unwelcome attention.

(* One longtime Cypherpunk received a visit from the FBI during the
Unabomber search. His interest in woodworking, and his subsriptions to
woodworking magazines, and his connections to the Berkeley math department,
all caused him to "fit the profile," it would seem. (Never mind that he was
in high school or earlier when the Unabomber started his bombings.))

Being "up front" is a lot easier than keeping a solid cover, watching every
post for slips, using digital pseudonyms religiously and without ever
slipping up or providing clues for correlation analysis. Your mileage may
vary, but I prefer to be out in the open about my views and (most of) my
activities.

--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."