ATLANTA _ A little-noticed mandate from the Trump administration has cleared the way for some people with outstanding arrest warrants to purchase guns, a change that worries law enforcement officials who say it could be allowing dangerous criminals to arm themselves.
Six months after the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo redefining who is a fugitive from justice _ and cannot have a gun _ more than a half a million names have been dropped from a national law enforcement database used to determine who may purchase firearms and/or obtain a carry permit, according to FBI records provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"I cannot believe this has happened," Vernon Keenan, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told The AJC.
"I told them this is a problem," he said about a conversation he had with the FBI about the change in fugitive definition.
Supporters said the guidance was needed to clear up confusion in the law.
