The Justice Department is trying to make it easier for Native American tribes to gain access to national crime databases. Federal authorities say the program could prevent criminals from buying guns and help keep battered women and foster children safe.
The issue of who can see information in federal criminal databases might sound boring, until one considers a deadly shooting at a high school in Washington state last year.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates recalled the case, "where a 15-year-old boy got access to a gun that his father should not have been able to purchase had the information been available at the time."
A court connected to the Tulalip Tribes had issued a restraining order against the boy's father for domestic violence. But that information never showed up in the federal criminal database, leaving the man free to purchase a gun.
[For more of this story, written by Carrie Johnson, go to http://www.npr.org/sections/it...rnment-native-tribes]
Comments (0)