This has actually stayed rather well on topic, all things considered.  Gun rights directly tie into the FBI not doing what it's supposed to, are from the same family of protected rights, and are part of our protection against the government doing such things as this.

Removing a unique identifier from the software to make it work on other phones is probably about as simple a change as it gets.  Do you really believe the FBI is going to come back to Apple for every new phone when they can just pay some college kid to reverse engineer the restrictions and get carte blanche?  Even if they stick to using it when they're supposed to, why would they not reverse engineer a restriction out of the works after Apple does the hard part of circumventing all their security measures?  I wouldn't expect them to stick within their legal restrictions anyway, anyone that does should probably have themselves institutionalized.  They are under multiple orders to cease storing the firearms background checks they are statutorily required to dispose of by the next business day, they've still got every last one of them, mine included.  When they built the NICS system, Janet Reno, our then Attorney General, told Congress it wasn't even capable of deleting them, because delete functions are really hard for computers apparently.  They actually do delete them from the NICS system now, supposedly at least, but not before they store them on interconnected systems across multiple agencies, including the insufficiently maligned ATF, as if that somehow makes it legal.  The FBI, and the DOJ in general, have a long, lustrous history of telling the law they're sworn to uphold to go fuck itself whenever they don't like it.

This is reasoning from the Civil War era, not a particularly modern outlook on military armament.  According to Wikipedia, they published their personal equipment numbers a few years back.  One seventh the number of pistols as rifles, not including the thousands of elite troops who have a standard sidearm that isn't part of those numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Switzerland#Equipment

Or from Europe, which exports like 20% of the arms.  The Checks make great pistols, the afformentioned P220 is a SIG Sauer, they make really nice pistols in Switzerland too, very popular here.  The US only has around 30% of the arms market, and we're not some tiny island that can reasonably keep them out.  Customs stops illegal arms shipments like they stop drug shipments, often, but with little impact on the flow.  Most criminals are buying old weapons, a lot of military surplus and old stock around the world ends up on the black market.

You just said Switzerland isn't as violent with the same reasoning that explains this, it is intellectual dishonesty to pretend the USA is magically immune to all the factors that make other gun toting societies safe just because your own personal paranoia makes you dislike the idea of your peers being armed.  Criminal gangs account for an overwhelming majority of violent crime in the major crime cities, as much as 80%, including murder, fueled by monetary considerations, and primarily are comprised of minorities and illegals, both of which are groups with cultural differences that lead to additional friction in a society.  Take them out of the equation, and the US resembles Europe in general.  Wait another ten years, and Europe will resemble the US instead, the influx of third world Muslims is going to do the same there as the influx of Hispanics and the destruction of black culture by welfare has done here.

As one of my favorite founder said, give me liberty, or give me death!  I'm just not interested in tolerating anything less.

Jafo. It ISN'T about just one phone.

If it were, then Apple would have gone along with the catch all stupid 18th century law compelling companies to help the government by providing needed evidence they've gone along with the past 70+ times. 

THIS time the fucking government is demanding Apple produce a program to weaken the security of NOT JUST this one 5c. It's to weaken all their phones, new and old because it weakens their OS.

What about this is hard to understand? And btw, enough America bashing.

Doc,  I do have to agree that this about more than just one phone.  That court decision opened a whole new can of worms for the US government and its agencies to exploit.... and exploit it they will.... with a vengeance now the door has been left ajar just enough to stick a size 15 boot in the gap to prevent its closure.  Eventually, there will be dozens of size 15 boots forcing it ajar ever wider, eventually forcing it wide open.

I know that Americans dislike government influence/intervenion in their lives and would do pretty near anything to restrict it, but the FBI v Apple case marks a new era of government and law enforcement surveillance and intrusions.  Things won't change overnight, but they WILL change... and there's a whole raft of consequences and variations that have yet to hit the fan.  Yup, the times they are a changin'....and not for the better

Oh, and that business about the Brits and guns, that was hundreds of years ago.... the time to move on from that mentality passed a couple centuries or more ago.  Put bluntly, a supposedly civilised society should not feel the need to arm itself to the teeth to so-say defend itself.... because civilised people don't go around shitting on each other and necessitating the use of firearms to 'settle' things...RIGHT?

The order cites the phone's serial number.  That makes it one phone.

Apple's CEO decided to make a meal out of it...probably an election year...

...oh, wait....

Nope, Jafo. 

In order to open that "one iPhone", Apple would have to create a program which would weaken its encryption, which could be used on EVERY iPhone.

It is NOT about that one phone. In essence it's a whole new ball game...and not just for Apple. It will be a whole new precedent, because the situation is VERY different from earlier cases where Apple DID help. And the DoJ and FBI (etc.) know it.

As if Apple hasn't got a way to get into anyone's system as and when they see fit already.

What Apple DOESN'T want to reveal to the 'paranoid' public is they could get in anytime all along....

For those who swear by tinfoil hats .... that'll be the TRUE agenda behind Apple's reluctance.

Tin foil, indeed. 

The FBI itself ruined the easiest (which Apple might well have used to help them) way access the data. HERE.

Now, because of their incompetence (do you really believe that?) they are demanding a program be written to decrease the security of the OS. THAT'S what the fight is all about. A whole new lever for the FBI to get anything any way they want. Subpoena? Who needs your stinkin' Subpoena? You will write us a program for a backdoor...and with that precedent will demand it of other companies.

Wrong. Cook is opposing them, rightly. The Magistrate who decided to grant the Court Order probably understood nothing about what was being asked for and its implications.

Actually, I was quite surprised how well the order appeared to be tech savvy. The issue, I think, is providing the FBI with a signed software package to unlock the phone. Seems that would negate all iphones?

Right on Brad, I agree 100%.

Oh, I bet it was well and truly understood.

Yes, I know....the phrases 'the law is an ass' .... and 'it's a case of Bliiiiind justice' [Guthrie] ....are all well and cute, but in most countries it's a requirement that Judges, etc. have a passable I.Q.

Sell your Govt. short....assume the worst of them....but the Judicial system too?

The only trustworthy creatures on the planet are all my little friends I speak to on the internets......

It isn't truth unless I found it on Google...

Isn't that what I wrote? And I don't think the Magistrate understood how that is a bird of a different feather.

Jafo, if you're happy to surrender your privacy and data without a warrant that can be fought...oh. I forgot. You have no Fourth Amendment.

No worries. I'm sure government is perfect in Oz. And by the way, the Judiciary is part of the government, here in the USA. And I don't sell them short.

Here, we keep a watchful eye on the government because they're just people with all the included foibles such as greed for power, and the arrogance of knowing what's best for everyone...

Seriously, with all this talk about the how the government is out to get you, take away your rights, privacy and guns, etc...the question I asked earlier in this thread remains.

Why are you still here? Certainly there must be other countries around the world that have politics and policies more to your liking?

Here we have the right to our beliefs...especially when founded in fact. 

The question isn't whether or where to stay. The point is keeping the place you're in true to course, and the "management" within its legal boundaries because Americans have fought and died for those principles.

For the sake of getting the better of terrorists who hide behind the exact same protection you yearn to keep...yes...they can have it gladly.

People have given up far more than some crappy data on a phone in the fight against terrorism.

The not releasing phone data is the 'do nothing' in that saying...."all that is needed for evil to prosper...."

I can't help but think how the rights of the victims fared....

I put more value on a person's life than whether his phone will reveal he's been shagging his secretary...

Well, my answer is the title of the OP...

So many have given all that and more for the right to say "No" to the government, and to prevent the terrorists from actually harming us by changing our basic rights, among them privacy.

Actually? It's about far, far more than that triviality...but even that privacy is sacrosanct.