This year, Georgia officials uploaded more than 2,000 new records of mentally ill residents to a national database that gun dealers use to run background checks of potential buyers.

The state also took down almost 500 other records, making it possible for scores of mentally ill people to acquire guns legally anywhere in the country.

In Georgia, that's the law: once a record of a commitment in Georgia has been on the National Instant Background Check System for five years, state law requires that it be removed.

Athens-Clarke County Probate Court Judge Susan Tate said the state’s law has deadly gaps when it comes to the mentally ill.

About the Author

Featured

Corbin Spencer, right, field director of New Georgia Project and volunteer Rodney King, left, help Rueke Uyunwa register to vote. The influential group is shutting down after more than a decade. (Hyosub Shin/AJC 2017)

Credit: Hyosub Shin