[Joe Brower]

Do you have to committ a crime to get a restraining order taken out against you?

Not at all. Restraining orders are, in many states now, a de facto part of any divorce proceeding, and thanks to the Brady Act, confiscating all the firearms belonging to the divorcing parties is now an automatic part of that process. This is what the US vs. Emerson case (recently dismissed by a cowardly US Supreme Court at the behest of the Bush administration's DOJ) was all about.

[ibbryn]

In Calif, a restraining order is also easily taken out against a neighbor. When I filed one against my psycho neighbor, the judge put one one me just for good measure. That WAS a suprize! No proof necessary, no problem to get.