Mandate clears way for more to own firearms
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.
Fugitives are among the groups of people who are barred from buying a gun under federal law. But who actually qualifies has been the subject of an almost decadelong dispute between the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The FBI had argued that a fugitive from justice was anyone with an outstanding warrant, regardless of whether they had crossed state lines to avoid prosecution. The ATF, which is charged with retrieving any guns sold to fugitives, said it should apply only if those people had fled a state to avoid prosecution there.
In a Feb. 15 memo, the Justice Department sided with the ATF — and the narrower definition. The change also applies to anyone who has knowingly left a state to avoid testifying in a criminal case.
“The department determined that the Brady (Handgun Prevention) Act does not authorize the denial of firearms transfers under the ‘fugitive from justice’ prohibitor based on the mere existence of an outstanding arrest warrant,” the Justice Department wrote.
“The current process of denying a NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) transaction based on the existence of an active warrant alone is no longer valid.”
The policy change came about with little publicity while other events coming out of the Trump administration dominated the news.
Advocates of tighter gun control laws said the change is in keeping with other administration moves, conducted with little or no fanfare, to make it easier for people to purchase firearms.