Maybe it's because we largely don't give a shit? One of the most notable reactions to 9/11 and then Obama's election and reign has been Americans arming themse

Maybe it's because we largely don't give a shit? One of the most notable reactions to 9/11 and then Obama's election and reign has been Americans arming themselves at astounding and unprecedented rates (something very well tracked because it's all taxed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittman%E2%80%93Robertson_Federal_Aid_in_Wildlife_Restoration_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittman%E2%80%93Robertson_Fede...). I think that's most because of the government's obviously ineffectual domestic response to 9/11 and Obama's indifference to all that and inimical attitudes towards us bitter clingers (I see no signs of a "180", just dishonesty in 2008), and e.g. Bush telling us our most important duty was to go shopping. But the post-9/11 expansions of the security state are a factor. It sure looked to me that the Church Committee et. al. had an effect for some years, and then there were great debates during the Clinton era over all this (remember the Clipper Chip?). At least they now feel a need to hide, there's a reason for that post-9/11. Mostly political, I suspect, but it might in part be due to feeling they won't have a secure rear area if they take this too far. People like me, at least, are willing to engage in mass slaughter of the organs of the state if they push too hard, and we have the numbers and the means to trivially swamp them. Fortunately for all concerned, just not the motivation. Yet, and for the foreseeable future. But we are most assuredly preparing. (And, please, no one handwave about drones et. al. Drone operators have to sleep some time at something resembling "home", there's a huge logistical tail, etc. Think also about scale, e.g. "Three Percent" of the absolute minimum 100 million gun owners in the country. And how we fight things like McCain-Feingold (Citizens United) that suppress our collective action; heck, while our betters are now trying to hide their surveillance efforts, they're quite open about frank abridgment of core political speech, which I find much more worrying.) And as long as I'm talking about dire subjects, it's long been my considered opinion that we won't get serious about all this until there are serious atrocities coming from less than robust and secure systems. Like a few thousand people dying from such a screwup, instead of the 3 from the Therac-25. I personally focus more on "robust" than "secure" (I noticed long before HN nickpsecurity's observation that there's no market for the latter, e.g. I was near ground zero for the final stages of the decline and fall of Multics), but they go hand in hand.