So the NRA collects a lot of money, targets unsupportive politicians, and can turn votes against them. The EFF has less money, and it's questionable whether ads attacking politicians for not supporting crypto would work. To the extent gun owners have bought the Republican scaremongering about terrorists, it might even backfire.
The EFF does what it can by focusing its efforts on the judicial system instead.
I won’t go down the road on your terrorist comment since it has nothing to do with the article.
Libertarian gun owners definitely support both gun rights and crypto, but that's a smaller group.
You can only carry out the "election suicide" strategy if you have enough popular support. Until then you're stuck with what the EFF does: education and legal action.
> You can only carry out the "election suicide" strategy if you have enough popular support. Until then you're stuck with what the EFF does: education and legal action.
Well, education and legal action are fine things, but they will not get you to where you want. They need to get over themselves and get a booth at the next NRA convention and maybe a booth at some gun shows. A nice catch phrase linking the protection provided by gun ownership with the protection offered by encryption would be a nice bonus.
If the EFF would rather not link the issues for fear of alienating some supporters, then maybe some new organization could.
If anything in Australia's history guns were used for oppression (of Aboriginal people) and not for liberation.
You can still own a gun in Australia. We just have a gun-averse culture, we do background checks on those who do have guns, and we have a National Firearms Agreement across all states and territories. Something I note that you don't have in the U.S. (well, some states do background checks, which is irrelevant if you buy a gun in a state that does not and move to the state that does).
You could, of course, read the Agreement yourself:
https://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Firearms/Documents/2017-na...
You might be aware that, to get involved in electioneering and financial support of candidates, an "NRA for encryption" would need to have a different tax status than EFF does.
I am not fond of the EFF because they don’t win. I would gladly contribute to an NRA for encryption if it was shown the people running it would use the exact same tactics as the NRA. No prisoners, no compromise, and flag waving. It’s better to be feared than weak in politics.
As I understand it, Australia already got rid of guns, so it’s no real surprise that their government is taking more of their liberties away.