LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- The man who sold the Columbine killers their semiautomatic handgun has been released to a halfway house after serving less than two years of his six-year sentence.

Mark Manes, 24 (pictured, left), was transferred Wednesday from the minimum-security Sterling Correctional Facility to the Community Responsibility Center in Lakewood, corrections department spokeswoman Alison Morgan said.

Manes had to be transferred because he is within 18 months of being eligible for parole, she said.

The move angered Brian Rohrbough, whose 15-year-old son, Daniel, was killed at Columbine.

"This is just feel-good sentencing. In reality, it's just the same old revolving door," he said.

Manes, who pleaded guilty to providing a handgun to minors and possessing an illegally sawed-off shotgun, was sentenced in November 1999.

Manes sold Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris a TEC-DC9 handgun for $500 about three months before the April 20, 1999, massacre at Columbine. Manes' lawyer, Robert Ransome, said his client had no idea what the two had in mind.

"It was not easy for him being in prison and being associated in any way with Columbine," Ransome said Wednesday. "He is the type of young man with a great amount of intelligence and talent, who will not let this setback in his life prevent him from being a success."

The Jefferson County Corrections Board had voted April 26 to move Manes to Lakewood. After members of the public objected, state authorities said that they delayed the transfer to protect Manes, other halfway house residents and neighbors.

The halfway house is home to 135 to 140 men and women who are required to stay employed and follow rules. Residents eventually can move to their own houses or apartments while remaining in the program.