Can I buy a gun if my parents put me in inpatient psychiatric care when I was a minor (2013 and 2017)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I emailed the BATF and received this message.
"The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) at 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4) makes possession of a firearm unlawful for any person who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective” or who has been “committed to a mental institution”.

Committed to a mental institution means a formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a board, court, commission, or other lawful authority. The term includes a commitment to a mental institution involuntarily. The term includes commitment for mental defectiveness or mental illness. It also includes commitments for other reasons, such as drug use. The term does not include a person in a mental institution for observation or voluntary admission to a mental institution.

A person is not prohibited under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4) if:

The person received relief from Federal firearms disabilities under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4) by:

• ATF, under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c), or;

• A proper Federal or State authority under a relief from disabilities program that meets the requirements of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, Public Law 110-180.

The mental health adjudication or commitment was imposed by a Federal department or agency, and the:

• Adjudication or commitment was set aside or expunged;

• Person was fully released from mandatory treatment, supervision, or monitoring;

• Person was found to no longer suffer from the disabling mental health condition;

• Person has otherwise been found to be rehabilitated; or

• Adjudication or commitment was based solely on a medical finding without opportunity for hearing by the Federal department or agency with proper jurisdiction."

As far as I know no legal authority was involved, I was taken to a hospital or some doctors office, they talked to me and sent me to inpatient psychiatric care for about a week each time. It didn’t seem like there was a mandatory amount of time I had to be there, they just let me go when they thought I was ready after talking to doctors multiple days. I took therapy and antidepressants after but I don’t recall it being mandatory, and when I stopped all treatment and medication in 2018 nothing else happened to me and no one asked me why I stopped ordering my prescription. I guess I could assume I’m rehabilitated but I don’t know if I was ever formally declared otherwise.

I’m from Ohio and some people said to try for a concealed carry license to test it out. This website only asked me if I’d been declared insane by a court and then said I could continue and register for the process. I’m about to be 21 and wanted to buy a hand gun, would I legally be allowed, any ideas on how to find out?

This is the concealed carry website I mentioned. Concealed Carry Qualification | Begin Here

2

Since this involves legal advice, it is better suited to IMHO than General Questions.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

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This is a duplicate thread. I tried to report the other one and got an error message so I am just putting this as a reply.

4

Thanks. I closed the other one.

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I thought this was under IMHO. I know it’s a duplicate but as far as I can tell this site doesn’t let me delete threads.

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Your original thread was in General Questions and I moved it to IMHO. Don’t worry, I’ve closed the duplicate.

7

Ok thank you.

8

It’s some kind of tricky situation where you don’t have answers on whether you’re legal, and the main way to check involve lying on a government form and opening yourself up to legal action. You may wish to pay for a general background check on yourself. CCW could be an option, though that might require live fire which technically you wouldn’t be allowed to do, though the chances of that causing an issue are very small.

From the description, it sounds like you weren’t ordered by a court and went mostly voluntarily, so my guess is it’s not in your record but treat lightly.

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I don’t remember receiving a form for my consent to be hospitalized like I’ve heard some people mention. Do you think it’s possible since I was a minor my parents would just make the decision for me and that would be determined voluntary? I don’t think there were any affidavits involved. Both times it was pretty sudden. Also for what it’s worth the website of the inpatient place calls it a “Mental Health & Addiction Center” although I never did drugs.

10

I’m saying I or anyone can speculate, but unfortunately you’re in legal limbo so there’s not a great answer besides call the ATF or background check yourself.

11

In my experience as an inpatient, what you did is not considered a commitment of any kind. It would be considered to be a voluntary admission since no court, judge or police officers were involved police can initiate a 72 hold, but for longer than that, a judge’s gavel has to fall. The details are from my state, yours might vary. Police did not escort you, you were able to leave in a few days time. Admissions are medical, to be a commitment requires legal, court, judicial action.

Sound like your parents did well by you and you have made good use of the care you received. Kudos to all.

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The 2nd hospitalization I was taken from wherever I was to the inpatient care in an ambulance. I’m not really sure why, I might’ve even had a choice between that and my parents taking me there but yeah, does that not make a difference? Also can it still be a voluntary if I never signed a consent form (never refused one, I just never got one).

13

If you were a minor your parents would have consented to treatment.

If your treatment at the hospital the ambulance took you to was an involuntary commitment (i.e. legal, judicial)it would have been more memorable, police officers securing your compliance with the transfer, etc.

Lay people use commitment as a term, too loosely. It’s quite specific and legalistically defined in reality and far less common than admissions.

14

Hi.

I own a gun store in southeastern Wisconsin.
Even if you haven’t left anything out it’s tough for me to guess whether or not you are a prohibited person. Is it possible you speak with your parents or the administration of the hospital(s) you were in to get more exact details?

Doing a self background check may not give you the answer. Many times they don’t include mental health issues and don’t include other factors that could legally bar you from owning a firearm. For instance, a check may show someone has a conviction for Disorderly Conduct, a misdemeanor that does not prohibit gun ownership. But if the DC charge was connected to domestic violence (there are specific laws called Disorderly Conduct DV) then, even though the charge is a misdemeanor a conviction does prohibit gun possession. A private background check might only show a DC conviction but not that it was a DCDV conviction. A gun background check would, however.

A gun dealer generally cannot run a background check on you unless you are actually buying a gun. A form 4473 has to be submitted in order to run an NICS check. Some states supplement the federal system with their own. I do not know if your state does this or if they do they can run a state check without you buying a gun.

I strongly discourage you from doing this, but if you try to buy a gun and fail the background check usually nothing happens. The dealer keeps the fee for the background, sometimes keeps your down payment of the gun, and tells you to get out of his store. The fail is reported and documented but usually nothing happens with it. But sometimes it can land you in a serious trick bag.

I encourage you to start from the beginning and speak with your parents/doctors to get an idea if you were actually adjudicated.

I am not a lawyer, none of this is legal advice.

16

Sorry I misread the bottom part and see that you already answered this.

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If you answer yes the dealer is not going to run the check. If you answer no and it comes back you were, you just lied on a federal form. Like I said, many times nothing will happen to you, but it can.

18

Yeah sorry, I misread the last part and tried deleting the question.

19

Oh, and I want to bring this up. FFL dealers are the only nongovernment entities who can access NICS.

So if you see some service online hawking background checks claiming the have access to it, they are lying.

20

No disrespect to anyone here, and I’m probably stating “Well duh” advice, but if I were the OP, this is probably not a decision you’d want to make based on the advice of anonymous strangers on a message board. You’d want to get straight with an attorney experienced in criminal law, especially firearms law. Weapons charges are some serious shit, and you can do end up committing felonies even if you don’t have bad intentions. Federal charges may come with minimum sentencing guidelines to boot.

In short, talk to a qualified criminal law expert. At minimum, maybe go to AVVO or some site like that.

21

Which is why I added I am not a lawyer and wasn’t giving legal advice.
The OP should still get more information from what actually occurred in the past. This would aid the attorney during their fact finding.