I think I heard on CNN last night the the Brady Bill passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. I think part of the Brady Bill calls for the development within 5 years of a nationwide computer system for performing "instant" checks on people attempting to purchase handguns. Without getting into a discussion on the issues of gun ownership (I'm *very* in favour of it), how do you suppose this Instant Check system will work? How will they index into the database? SSN? Health Security ID number? Fingerprints? I know TRW has developed a pilot fingerprint identification system for the San Jose Police Department. It's called C.O.N.F.I.R.M. (COunty-wide Networked Fingerprint Identification Remote Match. I'm not suggesting that CONFIRM was designed for the Instant Check system, just that the technology to create a nationwide fingerprints database exists, if the Gov'mnt were to decide that was a good thing. What can be done to insure that this Instant Check database idea doesn't get out of hand? (If it's not already too late.) Can personal cryptography prevent the accumulation of information on people who are arrested (regardless of whether or not they are convicted)? I doubt it. Only the elimination of the function of a police force would achieve that! A related, and more philosophical question is: Is there any room in Cypher-topia for databases containing information that can be used to identify convicted "rights-violators"? Jim_Miller@suite.com P.S. let me know if none of this is appropriate for the Cypherpunks list. I'm still new to this list.