<html> Hiya, Kelley, <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>i got stopped by the cops one day.  i was doing nothing wrong that HE could see.  no speeding.  no bad plates.  nada!  he had record of my arrest.  that was enough for him to stop me without feeling he needed to give me a good damnreason.  why?  because as my defense attorney told me last year, the public defender mind you, the cops and the courts and even the DA's office figures that you're usually guilty of something if you got arrested.  maybe not what you were arrested for, but something.  and that is particularly true if they think you're poor.  if you need a public defender he said, then you're poor and probably did something wrong.</blockquote> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>so,  he punched in my license number and got that arrest record and frickin stopped me. just for fun.  just because he figured he could and might find some stash or something.</blockquote>                  Presently she stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl -- a sort of                  glorying over Tom which was wellnigh unbearable. But Sid's fingers slipped and the bowl dropped and broke.                  Tom was in ecstasies. In such ecstasies that he even controlled his tongue and was silent. He said to himself                  that he would not speak a word, even when his aunt came in, but would sit perfectly still till she asked who did                  the mischief; and then he would tell, and there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model                  "catch it." He was so brimful of exultation that he could hardly hold himself when the old lady came back and                  stood above the wreck discharging lightnings of wrath from over her spectacles. He said to himself, "Now it's                  coming!" And the next instant he was sprawling on the floor! The potent palm was uplifted to strike again                  when Tom cried out:                  "Hold on, now, what 'er you belting ME for? -- Sid broke it!"                  Aunt Polly paused, perplexed, and Tom looked for healing pity. But when she got her tongue again, she only                  said:                  "Umf! Well, you didn't get a lick amiss, I reckon. You been into some other audacious mischief when I wasn't                  around, like enough." --Tom Sawyer, Chapter three. Still, unfairly though you were treated, I reckon a registered gun and an arrest record are in quite easily separable categories. <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>why should anyone in this country have to register their guns and be subjected to that crap?  because you can bet your butt the cops will use that record, just like they use my arrest record (despite the court outcome of not guilty and being further vindicated in the lawsuit). gun control will demand this stupe registration of guns firstly.  and that kind of crap will follow.  not the nazi dissolution into madnesss, but this peculiarly foucauldian/althusserian one.</blockquote> <x-sigsep></x-sigsep> Better abolish dog and car registration while you're at it.  Never know WHAT sorta foucauldian/althusseriann hole they could drop you into. cheers, Jo </html>