guns

NPR on Pilot Program for Tribes to Access National Crime Databases

Kate Fort

Here.

Under the Justice Department pilot program, 10 tribal communities will get their own hardware and training, so they don’t need to rely on local authorities.

John Dossett, general counsel of the National Congress of American Indians, said that matters.

“The states have been, you know, some of them are good to work with, some of them don’t work with tribes,” he said, “so it’s been an issue that’s been going on for a long time.”

Dossett pointed out that tribes have been pressing the federal government to open up the criminal databases for 10 years. And Congress has made it a priority, too.

He added that tribes are watching now to make sure the Justice Department program will be a continuing effort, one that will expand all over the country.

“We’re in a trust-but-verify situation,” Dossett said.

Gun in Tulalip School Shooting Purchased Illegally

Ann Tweedy2 Comments

Here’s a Seattle Times article about the fact that the gun Jaylen Fryberg used to shoot himself and several classmates in Marysville, Washington last fall was purchased illegally by his father. The father was subject to a permanent tribal restraining order for a domestic assault in 2002. Although the 2002 domestic assault predated the amendment to the federal law (see 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(33)) that disallowed those convicted in tribal court for domestic violence crimes from owning guns, the elder Fryberg had been convicted of violating the restraining order after that amendment became effective. Therefore, the problem appears to have been that the tribal court information did not make it into the federal database.

NYTs/David Cole Op-Ed: Who Pays for the Right to Bear Arms?

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

“The Simple Truth about Gun Control”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

An excerpt:

“Five thousand seven hundred and forty children and teens died from gunfire in the United States, just in 2008 and 2009.”

“Why Gun ‘Control’ Is Not Enough”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

An excerpt:

One would think that if widespread gun ownership had the robust deterrent effects that gun advocates claim it has, our country would be freer of crime than other developed societies.  But it’s not.  When most citizens are armed, as they were in the Wild West, crime doesn’t cease.  Instead, criminals work to be better armed, more efficient in their use of guns (“quicker on the draw”), and readier to use them.  When this happens, those who get guns may be safer than they would be without them, but those without them become progressively more vulnerable.