The problem is that you people like to extrapolate from one small scenario where the law will work without considering the greater practicality or long-term effectiveness of the law. The scenarios ignore basic facts about humans and technology. The simple fact is humans are resourceful and criminals have proven to be very dedicated.
Consider two things,
a) Regarding:
> in particular, it would take a lot to convince me that private ownership of assault rifles is anything but bad news.
The technological different between an 'assault rifle' and a semi-automatic hunting rifle is very small. As Cody Wilson has demonstrated, with a few 3d-printed parts you can turn a simple rifle - which is already restricted by law from being an assault rifle - into a fully blown assault rifle with a relatively small amount of technical knowledge.
The same was true for decades with anyone with metal machining skills.
So how much of a difference will it make if the tech available is merely restricted and not banned? If you can easily modified the technology?
b) The proposed encryption laws must insist that they won't interfere with American corporations from creating, selling, and exporting encryption to valid purchasers. The development of better-and-better encryption will not stop. It will still be one of Americas greatest exported technologies. An industry the US dominates (software).
So now taking that into consideration, will it be feasible to stop criminals from getting access to encryption?
Similar to encryption, America is the largest exporter of weapons in the world - unlike the UK or Scandinavian countries.
The simple fact is that there will be a huge market of both weapons and people (with specialized-skills) which will leak their guns/knowledge onto the black market. Combine that with the internet and decentralized tech and you have a very challenging regulation environment.
At best, it will be become yet another 'arms race' between criminals/police that is ultimately a net-negative investment for society (see: drugs).
> The same was true for decades with anyone with metal machining skills.
This. Also consider there are people with machine shops all over the country that make AR-15's from scratch. These are so-called "custom" firearms. Would we have to go around shutting down all machine shops if we outlawed "black" (named for the blueing) guns?
Consider two things,
a) Regarding:
> in particular, it would take a lot to convince me that private ownership of assault rifles is anything but bad news.
The technological different between an 'assault rifle' and a semi-automatic hunting rifle is very small. As Cody Wilson has demonstrated, with a few 3d-printed parts you can turn a simple rifle - which is already restricted by law from being an assault rifle - into a fully blown assault rifle with a relatively small amount of technical knowledge.
The same was true for decades with anyone with metal machining skills.
So how much of a difference will it make if the tech available is merely restricted and not banned? If you can easily modified the technology?
b) The proposed encryption laws must insist that they won't interfere with American corporations from creating, selling, and exporting encryption to valid purchasers. The development of better-and-better encryption will not stop. It will still be one of Americas greatest exported technologies. An industry the US dominates (software).
So now taking that into consideration, will it be feasible to stop criminals from getting access to encryption?
Similar to encryption, America is the largest exporter of weapons in the world - unlike the UK or Scandinavian countries.
The simple fact is that there will be a huge market of both weapons and people (with specialized-skills) which will leak their guns/knowledge onto the black market. Combine that with the internet and decentralized tech and you have a very challenging regulation environment.
At best, it will be become yet another 'arms race' between criminals/police that is ultimately a net-negative investment for society (see: drugs).