&gt; Your argument is that cypto and guns should be viewed as equivalent<p>Whoa there, I never said they were equivalent.  I said that they have some similarities.<p>&gt; ANFO possession and use should be as unrestricted as gun or crypto possession and use, yes?<p>I&#x27;m not saying that.  And moreover, I have zero desire to re-enact the same old gun rights vs gun control Internet flame war yet again.  Please don&#x27;t try to slot me into either side of those standard arguments.<p>What I am saying is that (1) there are similarities between the two technologies and their potential for misuse, (2) it&#x27;s not surprising that many people want to ban or restrict both of them, and (3) it is surprising (to me, at least) that there are so many people who feel so strongly that one should be banned and the other unlimited.<p>Maybe a better way to say it would be this: If you support limits on the kinds of firearms and explosives that people are allowed to own, why don&#x27;t you also think there should be limits on the kinds of cryptography that people are allowed to own?  The closest analogue seems to be weak &quot;export grade&quot; crypto from the 90&#x27;s -- RC4 with 40-bit keys, etc.  Or maybe key escrow.