[an amused spectator]

That's a little misleading to say that ALL Wall-Mart stores were doing this as they only went to six of them. But still it doesn't sound like Wall-Mart is running a very tight ship. Well unless you're trying to unionize the workforce.

I've been saying for years on this forum that every American is a criminal law-breaker - we just haven't been arrested and charged yet.

I believe that the authoritarian thug Lockyer has proved my point.

[lelio]

that every American is a criminal law-breaker - we just haven't been arrested and charged yet.
Agree 110%. The laws are there so that if you anger the wrong person they can throw the book at you. Play nice and bow your head at the judge and you'll get a lighter sentence.
Did you count the number of offenses per gun transaction? There's probably 10 different laws Wal-Mart broke in selling one gun. How is anyone supposed to abide by all of them and tell all their clerks to do so? You can't, and the state mostly lets you slide. Until you don't pony up the Lockyer ReElection Fund bribes that is.
Other than this being despicable, it puts the populace constanly on guard wondering if what they are doing is wrong somehow. Who is going to stick their neck out when they are wondering if they'll get slapped with the "Can't do X on Tuesday" law secretly enacted?
I never really thought about that last point till I heard an interview with the author of a Sports Illustrated piece on Iraq's torture of Olympic athletes. He said that parents would pull their kids out of soccer if they showed themselves to be above the norm, as they didn't want a Baath party person to see them and then force them to play for the country team, and possibly get killed.
I'm not saying that our situation is comparable to Iraq's, but how much creativitity and individual rights are being crushed as people are unsure of their status as citizens?