NICS, and I doubt it does that, can anyone verify? It would be able to potentially tell if you have ever been carted off to the mental hospital by police, though.
True about the police cart-off, but that in and of itself wouldn’t mean you are chronically (or even acutely) mentally ill. And I don’t see how the NICS could access confidential medical records.
Of course, if you make threats against someone’s life to your doctor he or she is allowed and compelled to contact the authorities. But that isn’t what I’m wondering about here. I’m trying to figure out how anyone, other than your doctor, can know that you are mentally ill.
I don’t think a cart-off would necessarily show up on NICS. Upon arrival the hospital has no obligation to admit a person regardless of how s/he arrived and if they sent them away with a benzo script and a list of local psychs that wouldn’t be a comittment. Even a formal comittment won’t necessarily get you on NICS as not all states report data like they’re supposed to.
I get the idea that between lax reporting and all the loopholes it’s more or less on the honor system not to have weapons if you’re not supposed to. And cops have better things to do than go to the local gun range and run NICS checks see if you’re allowed to have weapons, so it’s most likely it’s just another charge to nail you with if you actually commit a crime and that prompts an investigation into whether or not you may lawfully have weapons.
To all the responses above, the HIPAA act only protects things mostly under medical insurance companies. If a person is sent to a mental hospital and kept, a file of it is sent to the Clerk Of Court and then filed again with the Police. NICS will know you are a prohibited person even if you never try to buy a gun. I have done a lot of research since this post and have read a lot of legal documents for Florida and Federal Laws. And remember, police were NOT involved in my case. I showed up on my own per under the school’s order.
To why I want a gun, pretty much all stated above. Mostly for home defense and just because I like shotguns. Handguns never spiked an interested in me.