[HUMOR] Are bagpipes weapons?

Mark Q. Maxham (max@atg.apple.com)
Thu, 13 Jun 1996 16:30:22 -0700

Via: David Wadsworth <dwadsw@etna.demon.co.uk>

What is the connection between crypto and bagpipes? Well, crypto is
regarded as an armament by the US ITAR regulations. Later this month a
British court is to rule as to whether bagpipes are still classified as
"instruments of war"!

The story is in today's Times newspaper (The British one) It seems that
a piper is being taken to court for practising on Hampstead Heath,
which has a bye-law forbidding music. Mr Brooks, the piper, has denied
the charge, citing a case in 1746, where bagpipes were declared to be
instruments of war, not musical instruments, and a subsequent Act of
Parliament which specifically stated that they were weapons. He claims
he wasn't playing a musical instrument, but practising with a weapon!

The imagination boggles if his claim is successful! Will it be possible
to sue pipers for assault with a deadly weapon? Will airports be
equipped with bagpipe detectors?