Shooting Cans Printed in the Eugene Weekly in April, 2004.       Thank you for Tom Lininger's opinion piece (3/25) about the recent Supreme Court decision resulting in obstacles for those prosecuting domestic violence cases. I found it informative and well thought out until Lininger, questioning the justice's opinion, wonders if he "was shooting cans with batterers the night before he issued the decision."       With this sentence Lininger supports the classist stereotype that batterers are back-woods, uneducated drunks. Conversely, it promotes the idea that upstanding citizens are "above" abusive behavior. In actuality, domestic violence spans all cultures and socioeconomic classes.       Batterers can be "simple-minded hicks" as well as peace-loving hippies, police officers, or even law professors. Domestic violence is a choice--a choice supported by the beliefs of our society. These beliefs are based in sexism, as well as classism and myriad other forms of oppression. And they can show themselves in ways as overt as an affluent batterer evading prosecution, or as subtle as a joke about "shooting cans."       We need to change our own beliefs in order to remove an obstacle already before us: How do we hold batterers accountable when we believe that respected people aren't capable of domestic violence?