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.
