Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.law-enforcement,alt.politics.british,uk.politics,talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.guns From: [r--s--l] at [eternity.demon.co.uk] (Russell Earl Whitaker) Subject: Part 1 of 3: The Case Against Gun Control Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 00:47:34 +0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- THE CASE AGAINST GUN CONTROL DAVID BOTSFORD Whoever controls the weapons makes the rules. Political power, that is, the power of one individual over another, rests partly on assent on the part of the ruled, whether through perceived self-interest or belief in the justice of the ruler's claim to power (or a combination of both), and partly on the capacity of the ruler to enforce his power over the subjugated by his control of more physical force than the latter. These factors are related: the majority of people throughout history either have not been in a position, or have not had the inclination, to make up their minds about abstract political ideas and then decide whether or not their current political arrangements suit these ideas; the very fact that the claim or assumption of power is made, backed up with sufficient capacity for violence to enforce it, is enough to make most people not only go along with the wishes of the ruler, but few will question the abstract legitimacy of his right to assert them. State power is a combination, in varying proportions, of violence, fraud, extortion and conspiracy to rob other people. In politics, unfortunately, might makes right, generally speaking. And neither is this true simply of conventional political relationships: psychologists record many cases of victims of terrorist hijackings falling in love with their captors, and in situations, such as the end of the American civil war, or the abolition of slavery in other countries, where slaves have suddenly been released from bondage, plentiful evidence exists that many ex-slaves were far from happy about their new situation. The same principle applies to situations where the individual is simply trying to preserve power over himself or herself, rather than impose it on someone else. Where the individual has the capacity, if necessary, to defend himself and his property by force, and to inflict injury or death on those attempting to violate them, that factor wiill always be present in the thinking of those seeking to exercise coercion over him, whether by political power or by more honest forms of robbery. While this capacity will by no means make anybody immune to such coercion, it will nonetheless be a limiting factor in what potential coercers will attempt to get away with. WEAPONS AND THE INDIVIDUAL This history of technology has, in general, been partly one of continuous enhancements in the power of the individual (interrupted by various Dark Ages and relatively static periods), and partly one of attempts by those in power to restrict the spread of such improvements: for centuries after the invention of printing, Church and state authorities attempted to restrict the spread of both printing presses and printed books. Many inventions have been used both for the benefit of individuals, and for state control over individuals. Barbed wire greatly assisted the farming of cattle, and also made possible the development of concentration camps. With the early spread of computers in the 1950s and 1960s, fears were expressed that they would facilitate totalitarian controls by the state over the individual: in fact, while such fears have proved far from groundless, more significant is the use of personal computers in setting up alternative networks of information which have helped to undermine totalitarianism, particularly in the Soviet bloc. Nowhere is this dichotomy clearer than in the field of weaponry. Throughout most of history the technology of weaponry made it rather difficult for the individual effectively to defend himself against more powerful enemies. This led to political dependence on somebody else. In Europe in the early middle ages, for instance, the development of feudalism meant that the peasantry lost what individual autonomy they had: unable effectively to defend themselves against invading barbarians, the peasant had to accept an arrangement with a local lord whereby he became the latter's vassal in return for protection. The lord was rich enough to pay for the castle and knights which were able to defeat the barbarian raiders; this capacity, and the political arrangements consequent on it, gave him in most cases virtually the power of life and death over his villeins and serfs. While feudalism varied greatly from place to place, control over effective weaponry clearly reflected political power. In 1215, the barons of England, each with their own feudal armies, succeeded in forcing King John to sign Magna Carta because they had the military power to do so when the king was temporarily unable to finance sufficient forces to resist them. In 1381, by contrast, the great uprising against prices and incomes policy and poll tax known as the Peasants' Revolt (but actually lead by merchants, craftsmen, clerics and townspeople) was tricked and then brutally repressed by the royal authorities because, according to a contemporary source, "some carried only sticks, some swords covered with rust, some merely axes and others bows more reddened with age and smoke than old ivory, many of their arrows had only one plume."1 The development of gunpowder, artillery and other firearms brought about a changed situation. On the one hand, the king was able to destroy the power of local barons and establish a centralised monarchy in which his power was exercised throughout his realm, as only he could afford the huge cost of armies equipped with artillery, which could destroy the barons' castles' walls, if they failed to submit to the king's wishes. On the other hand, the development of small arms made it increasingly possible for the ordinary individual to provide for his own defence, either alone or in concert with others. The introduction of repeating rifles and revolvers in the 19th century marked one of the most important technological revolutions in history in this respect. Before the introduction of small firearms, the individual armed with a sword, axe or pike would stand little chance against a group of marauders similarly armed; the bow took years of practice to master, and even an expert bowman could almost never prevail against a number of similarly-armed enemies, who could strike him down as he notched another arrow. Even the musket had a lengthy and complicated reloading procedure, during which its possessor was vulnerable, and could be rendered ineffective if rain extinguished the fuse. Another problem was that early muskets and pistols could only be produced expensively by hand, thus restricting the number of people who could afford to buy them: the many fine specimens with intricate silverwork that we see in museums were specially made by gunsmiths for wealthy customers; the more plain ones were generally for the use of soldiers in royal armies. But the repeating rifle and revolver enabled the user to fire several shots in succession without having to reload; the chances of a skilled marksman against several enemies were greatly improved. These could also be mass-produced in factories at very low cost, bringing them within the reach of almost everybody. The individual armed with these weapons, and practised in their use, therefore achieved considerable autonomy in terms of the defence of his own life and property. One political implication of this was that, since political authority, whether that of the feudal master or the modern state, had rested largely on the claim that the powerful were protecting the powerless, who in return owed the powerful (whether an individual monarch or noble or an idea, such as "state", "nation" or "society") allegiance, the scope of this authority could therefore be reduced to the extent that the previously powerless were now able to defend themselves. In response to this situation the state sought to restrict private ownership of weapons and establish a monopoly of legal force within society, in order to reinforce and increase its own power. Indeed, if the state could convey the illusion that the private ownership of weapons, and the willingness of individuals to use these weapons to defend themselves if necessary, was itself a "threat to society" of some sort, for example by associating it with the use of weapons in robbery and murder, then this progressive technological development could be used as a justification for even further extending state power at the expense of individual liberty. Not only would the individual be made dependent on whatever the state may or may not effectively provide for his protection against aggressors, but he would be incapable of self-defence if the state itself should become the aggressor. POLICE MONOPOLY This, of course, describes the situation in Britain today. Britain has by far the strictest controls on the private ownership of firearms and other weapons of any western country, and the smallest distribution of (legally-held) firearms. During unrest in Soviet Georgia early in 1989, in the course of which 21 demonstrators were shot dead in Tbilisi by the Soviet authorities, one measure introduced by the regime to put down the protests was the seizure of all privately owned firearms in Georgia. The number seized proved to be almost exactly the proportion of legally-held firearms per head as those owned by the British population. It is a sobering thought to anyone who has noticed how short and insecure in history are the periods of relative freedom compared to the periods of oppression that the British people would be in no better position to defend themselves from any future tyranny imposed by a British government than are the oppressed people of Georgia. Indeed, we are not even allowed adequately to defend ourselves from violent assault by individual aggressors. In 1987 Eric Butler, aged 55, who had been entirely law-abiding throughout his life and who was, among other charitable activities, a fund-raiser for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, was assaulted on the London Underground by a gang of drunken young men. Evidently motived by entertainment rather than material gain, the youths first punched, strangled and kicked Mr Butler, then held him against the door of the train and repeatedly punched him and pushed his head hard against it. He succeeded, however, in drawing a sword-stick which he carried with him and wounding one of his assailants in the stomach (the attacker ended up in hospital for several days), thereby breaking free. At the next station he immediately informed the police, who proceeded to arrest Mr Butler and charge him with carrying an offensive weapon and causing grievous bodily harm, while releasing the two attackers. Mr Butler was fined, thereby gaining him a criminal record, and his sword-stick was confiscated. After a public outcry, two of the attackers were eventually charged with assault and themselves fined. The individual is expected to rely exclusively on the police for protection, and to use no force against attackers beyond what is officially considered the level of force being used against him (or her). Neither may the individual attack or even warn off a burglar with any form of weapon. In 1987 John O'Connell, aged 40, a south London grocer, whose shop had been burgled seven times in just over a month, kept watch at night in his cellar and attacked the eighth burglar with a piece of lead piping which broke his jaw: the burglar spent two weeks in hospital. When he called the police Mr O'Connell himself was arrested and tried for grievous bodily harm! Fortunately the jury acquitted him, and it was reported that he had not been raided since (although neighbouring properties had been hit as hard as ever). What is instructive is what the burglar, who was given a sentence of 80 hours' community service for four burglaries (in practice gardening and other activities many people do as a hobby), said after the trial: "Good luck to him. I don't blame him at all, but I just wish he had not hit me so hard. I know he had to protect his property, and I probably would have done the same thing in his position. This has certainly stopped me committing any more crime."2 A burglar, in other words, accepts his victim's right to self-defence far more than does the law of the land! If all victims of burglary and other crimes were legally allowed to defend themselves with effective weapons, including firearms, a large number of other criminals would be stopped from committing any more crimes.3 A recent Government Statistical Office survey reveals that the official clear-up rate for burglary throughout the country is 26.9%; robbery 20.9% and criminal damage 22.1%.4 This does not, of course, mean that the victim will get any of his property back, even if the case is solved, but demonstrates the low efficiency of the monopoly police service which the taxpayer is forced to pay for, and which will be used against him if he attampts to provide for his own protection. On 17 July 1989 Douglas Hurd, the Home Secretary, admitted that in the London area seven out of every ten reported crimes (outside certain "serious" categories) are ignored by the Metropolitan Police as a matter of policy, with "non-aggravated" burglary and car break-ins top of the list of offences to be ignored. The individual is, in short, unilaterally disarmed by law against potential attackers and robbers. What is striking, in examining the history of weapons ownership control in England, is how recently this situation has developed, and what a striking departure from historical practice it represents. THE HISTORY OF WEAPONS CONTROL In examining the history of weapon controls in England, a distinction should be made between the private ownership of weapons by individuals, and the use of weapons by the militia system, which was the main method of law enforcement in England throughout most of its history. From Anglo-Saxon times onwards, individuals were enrolled in groups of about ten families called tythings, which were responsible for local law enforcement, and, where necessary, for the defence of the realm, as there was no police force or standing army. Every freeman had a duty to keep arms in order to carry out these functions. The Assize of Arms (1181) detailed the type of weapons to be kept by persons of various ranks. The Statute of Winchester (1285) commanded "that every man have in his house Harness for to keep the Peace after the ancient Assize; that is to say every man between fifteen years of age and sixty years shall be assessed and sworn to armour according to the quality of their lands and goods."5 The spread of firearms in the early 16th century, then regarded as inefficient novelties, caused concern about armed crime and the neglect of archery, and in 1541 Henry VIII forbade the use of "crossbows, handguns, hagbutts and demy-Hakes" by anybody with an income of under UKP 100 a year. Even this latter class were to have handguns "not less than three quarters of one whole yard in length".6 However, exceptions to this law permitted the use of such weapons by the inhabitants of towns "for shooting at butts or banks of earth" and by anyone to defend a house outside the limits of a town. In 1671, in order to reserve game for the wealthy, Charles II enacted that any person without an annual income of over UKP 100 (except those of or above the rank of esquire and owners and keepers of forests) were not allowed to keep any gun, bow, greyhound, setting dog or long dog. Neither of these laws, however, affected either the duty to keep arms under the militia system, or the right to private ownership of other weapons (principally pikes for the lower orders by 1671). The Roman Catholic king, James II, however, violated these traditional rights, among others, by dismissing many Protestants from the militia and prohibiting them from owning weapons. When William of Orange overthrew James in 1688, parliament presented him with the Bill of Rights, which complained that James did "endeavour to subvert and extirpate the laws and liberties of the Kingdom" in thirteen ways; the sixth of these was that James had "Caused several good subjects, being protestants, to be disarmed at the same time when papists were both armed and imployed, contrary to law." Claiming that they were asserting no new rights, parliament declared "that the subjects which are protestants may have arms for their defence, suitable to their condition and as allowed by law".7 The Bill, which was accepted into law by William and Mary, did not seek to disarm Roman Catholics, but to end discrimination against Protestants in arming themselves. Sir William Blackstone's /Commentaries on the Laws of England/, first published in 1765, is a study of common law rights and the (unwritten) constitution which is still regarded as the definitive statement of the common law at that time. Blackstone wrote: "The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject, that I shall mention at present, is that of having arms for their defence, suitable to their condition and degree, and such as are allowed by law. Which is also declared by the same Statute I W & M St 2 c2 and it is indeed a public allowance under due restrictions of the natural right of resistance and self preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression ... "And we have seen that these rights consist, primarily, in the free enjoyment of personal security, of personal liberty and of private property. So long as these rights remain inviolate, the subject is perfectly free; for every species of compulsive tyranny and oppression must act in opposition to one or other of these rights, having no other object upon which it can possibly be employed ... And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated and attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defence. And all these rights and liberties it is our birthright to enjoy entire; unless where the laws of our country have laid them under necessary restraints; restraints in themselves so gentle and moderate, as will appear upon further enquiry, that no man of sense or probity would wish to see them slackened."8 A comparison between this view and current official attitudes to the desire of individuals to provide for their own defence gives a good idea of the decline of liberty in this country over the past two centuries. The right to possess arms was vigourously defended and upheld by parliamentarians throughout the 19th century. Following the industrial unrest of the 1810s, when the government believed a revolution was brewing, the repressive administration of Lord Liverpool introduced the Seizure of Arms Act 1820, which authorised a Justice of the Peace, on the oath of a credible witness, to issue a warrant to enter any place to search for "Any pike, pike head or spear in the possession of any person or in any house or place; or any dirk, dagger, pistol or gun or other weapon which, for any purpose dangerous to the peace is in the possession of any person or in any house or place."9 Weapons seized were to be detained unless the owner satisfied a JP that they were not kept for a purpose dangerous to the peace. Although the Act applied only to the industrial areas affected by disturbances (Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, Durham, Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire, and the cities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham and Coventry), and was limited to two years, several members of Parliament objected to the infringement of liberty the Bill entailed. George Bennet protested that the distinctive difference between a free man and a slave was the right to possess arms, not so much to defend his property as his liberty. Neither could he do battle, if deprived of arms, in the hour of danger. T. W. Anson protested that the principles and temper of the Bill were "so much at variance will the free spirit of our venerated constitution and so contrary to the undoubted right which the subjects of this country have ever possessed - the right of retaining arms for the defence of themselves, their families and properties that I cannot look upon it without loudly expressing my disapprobation and regret."10 George Canning, a senior minister (and later Prime Minister) replied: "I am perfectly willing to admit the right of the subject to hold arms according to the principles laid down by the Honourable and Learned Gentleman, having stated it on the authority of Mr Justice Blackstone. The doctrine so laid down, I am willing to admit, is no other than the doctrine of the British Constitution. The Bill of Rights, correctly quoted and propery construed, brings me to the construction of the Bill which, in fact, recognises the right of the subject to have arms, but qualifies that right in such a manner as the necessity of the case requires."11 The Gun Licences Act 1870 required that, with certain exceptions, any person carrying or using a gun elsewhere than in or within the curtilege of a dwelling-house should pay a revenue fee of 10 shillings. This was purely an excise measure, with no intent of controlling firearms: licences were available without question at any post office. Nonetheless, in committee P. A. Taylor condemned the Bill as "an attempt to bring our laws and cunstoms into harmony those of the most despotic Continental Governments - it is an attempt to disarm the people!"12 It should be noted that during the 19th century, when British people were completely free to arm themselves, although the population grew to several times its original size (from 11 million in 1801 to 41 million in 1911), the crime rate fell not only in relative but also in absolute terms. Nonetheless, the final decades of the 19th century saw a marked increase in the control by the state over the life of the people in many fields, and demands were increasingly put forward for various measures of gun control. A leader in the /Daily Telegraph/ of 5 November 1888, for instance, argued that "We can conceive instances in which it is justifiable, or at least excusable, for civilians to have revolvers in their dwellings ... The carrying of a revolver on the person is quite another matter; and it is distinctly a cowardly, bloodthirsty, and un-English habit ... "Let the proprietors of revolvers be registered and let no person be placed on the register until he can show his right to possess such a weapon, which should be numbered, and let infraction of the law be made a misdemeanour punishable by fine and imprisonment."13 In this new mood, the government introduced the Pistols Bill 1893, which sought to impose restrictions on pistol sales and use, but the Bill was defeated. C. H. Hopwood objected that "It attacked the natural right of everyone who desired to arm himself for his own protection, and not harm anyone else."14 In 1895 a private member's bill which sought similar restrictions was again defeated, the same Hopwood arguing that "To say that because there were some persons who would make violent use of pistols, therefore the right of purchase or possession by every Englishman should be taken away is monstrous."15 Colin Greenwood, former Chief Inspector of the West Yorkshire Constabulary and now editor of /Guns Review/, in his definitive study /Firearms Control/ summarises the legal situation with regard to firearms in 1900: "England entered the twentieth century with no controls over the purchasing or keeping of any types of firearm, and the only measure which related to the carrying of guns was the Gun Licence Act, requiring the purchase of a ten shilling gun licence from a Post Office. Anyone, be he convicted criminal, lunatic, drankard or child, could legally acquire any type of firearm and the presence of pistols and revolvers in households all over the country was fairly widespread ... "... guns of every type were familiar instruments and ... anyone who feld the need or desire to own a gun could obtain one. The cheaper guns were very cheap and well within the reach of all but the very poor ... the right of the Englishman to keep arms for his own defence was still completely accepted and all attempts at placing this under restraint had failed."16 GUN CONTROL IN OUR TIME The Pistols Act 1903 introduced the first restriction on retail firearms sales, albeit an apparently mild one. It made unlawful the retail sale or hire of a pistol unless the purchaser either held a gun licence under the Gun Licences Act 1870, or proved that he was a householder seeking to use the pistol in, or within the curtilege of his own house, or produced a signed declaration from a magistrate or police inspector that he was about to go abroad for at least six months. More significantly, it was made unlawful for persons under 18 to buy, hire, use or carry a pistol, and for anyone to sell or deliver a pistol to a person under 18, or knowingly to sell a pistol to anyone intoxicated or of unsound mind. Also, retailers were required to maintain full records of all pistols sold, and show these on demand to a police or revenue officer. This could have little practical effect on retail sails to adults, as a gun licence was available on demand to anyone for 10 shillings, and no restriction was placed on private sales or gifts between individuals. Nonetheless it removed the freedom of a large group of British subjects - - those under 18 - to arm themselves with pistols, and also subjected the right of everybody else under the control of statutory legislation, however apparently innocuous, for the first time. Although other firearms were not affected, this was a dangerous precedent, in that when, in a more intolerant atmosphere, the state sought further restrictions on firearms, and these were objected to, it could point to the existence of the Act as justification for the principle of further statutory controls. Such an atmosphere emerged with the First World War and its revolutionary aftermath. In 1918 the Sub-committee on Arms Traffic saw the vast quantities of surplus weapons that would come onto international markets after the war as a possible threat to the British Empire, both from "Savage or semi-civilised tribesmen in outlying parts of the British Empire" and "The anarchist or `intellectual' malcontent of the great cities, whose weapon is the bomb and the automatic pistol. There is some force in the view that the latter will in future prove the more dangerous of the two."17 It is important to stress that the government was not seeking to disarm the broad mass of responsible British people. Indeed, at the end of the war the government gave away nearly all its huge stockpile of captured German weapons to individuals who had contributed to the war savings scheme. Each person who had given a small amount received a rifle; those who had given more received a machine-gun; and those who have given particularly large donations were given a piece of German field artillery each!18 The Firearms Act 1920 introduced major firearms control for the first time in British history, although in theory it did not extinguish the right to keep arms to defend the person and household. Under Section 1, with certain exemptions, an individual could only purchase or possess a firearm or ammunition if he held a firearms certificate, valid for three years and renewable for three-year periods, which "shall be granted by the Chief Officer of Police" in the applicant's district, if the applicant had "good reason for requiring such a certificate"; could be permitted to possess, use and carry a firearm without endangering public safety; and on payment of a fee. The Chief Officer was to deny a certificate to anyone he considered "unfitted to be entrusted with firearms". The certificate, which was to be shown on demand to a police officer or magistrate, would list the number and nature of the firearms. Section 2 introduced the registration of firearms dealers; trade in firearms was restricted to those who registered with the local Chief Officer of Police; registration could be refused if the police believed the dealer "Could not be permitted to carry on business without danger to the public safety or the peace."19 It was made an offence to supply a firearm to persons under 14, persons drunk or of unsound mind, or certain convicted persons for specified periods. The Act also introduced the concept of "prohibited weapons", which means any "designed for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing". (One result of this section of the Act is that anti-mugging aerosol cans which discharge CS or Mace gas in the face of an attacker without doing him permanent harm - and would thus be ideal for those who wish to defend themselves without risking killing anyone - are illegal.) In parliamentary discussion of the bill, Mr Kiley objected that a burglar seeking firearms could easily burgle a place where they were stocked and steal them wholesale. "While it achieves no useful purpose, so far as I can see, it does interfere with legitimate traders. So far as burglars are concerned it will have no effect." Only Lt-Commander Kenworthy objected on constitutional grounds, pointing out that there was "... a much greater principle involved than the mere prevention of discharged prisoners having weapons. In the past one of the most jealously guarded rights of the English was that of carrying arms. For long our people fought with great tenacity for the right of carrying the weapon of the day, the sword, and it was only in recent times that it was given up. It has been a well known object of the Central Government of this Country to deprive the people of their weapons."20 Nonetheless the Bill became law. It should be noted that the 1920 Act was never intended as a measure against the ordinary criminal use of firearms, and did not prevent it. Nonetheless, it was typical of the slap-dash and superficial treatment of British firearms legislation this century that in 1934 the Bodkin Committee assumed, presumably without examining the background to the 1920 Act, that that had been its purpose, and regarded the well-publicised (though not much increased) criminal use of firearms as evidence that further restrictions were necessary. The Committee recommended, along with several minor changes, the classification of machine-guns as "prohibited weapons", and the law was updated in the Firearms Act 1937. During the Second World War, the government, which was short of small arms, repeatedly appealed to the public to offer privately-owned firearms for sale, and thousands were bought in this way. At the end of the war, despite prohibition from military authorities, thousands of servicemen brought home weapons as souvenirs. In 1946, under a six-week amnesty (under which illegal weapons could be surrendered without fear of prosecution), 75,000 illegal weapons were handed in, including 59,000 pistols and 1,580 machine-guns. In October 1946 the Home Secretary went further than previous legislation in controlling private arms when he said: "I would not regard the plea that a revolver is wanted for the protection of an applicant's person or property as necessarily justifying the issue of a firearm certificate."21 The legislation of the 1960s, which gave Britain the strictest firearms control in the western world, was in Greenwood's view the result partly of a political trade-off with the abolition of the death penalty, partly based on ignorance of facts and misinterpretation of data connected with firearms and crime. In 1965 the government was seeking to abolish the death penalty, a step strongly opposed by public opinion and many MPs. At that time, a number of well-publicised robberies and murders, committed with firearms, had taken place (although the statistical incidence of such offences was no higher than in the late 1940s). As a concession, in order to be seen to be "cracking down on crime" and thus obtain support for the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Bill, and also fearing an increase in armed crime after the passage of that Bill, the government very hastily introduced the Firearms Act. As well as minor further restrictions, this introduced the offence of carrying firearms with intent to commit an offence; further restricted carrying firearms in public; extended the powers of the police to require that weapons be handed over for inspection, search persons and vehicles suspected of carrying arms, and to arrest without warrant; and drastically increased the penalties provided in the 1937 Act. The police were empowered to impose conditions on registered firearms dealers, and for the first time those who dealt in shotguns were required to be registered, and to keep records of all transactions. In an incident in August 1966 three policemen were murdered in London by a criminal gang using pistols. Massive protests from the public, the Police Federation and other bodies demanded the return of the death penalty for murder, arguing that the criminals would not have killed the officers if it was still in force. Roy Jenkins, the Home -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLJz19YTj7/vxxWtPAQGxdAQAp5CQWg5pSGThUNuvW6RKjFPEDr+MjC6r OfN5WM/PE3fOsb3ffKlMNbYMhArbcvLeUidr4P8rSYJehK/YUcH4QA1iAmITwG7c IKiQFrJPe+3NqK8gUNuBKy280DL23nDAPEw/VDeFqvQE6EbxSzdsgHooudMxWpi/ K75hKksaZ54= =kNu6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Russell Earl Whitaker [w--ta--r] at [eternity.demon.co.uk] Communications Editor AMiX: RWhitaker EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought Board member, Extropy Institute (ExI) Co-organizer, 1st European Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, London, 20 November 1993