I have a potential student who is worried that spending a week in hospital for anxiety and depression when he was 15 might make him a prohibited person.
My understanding is that it does NOT, unless a court committed him.
i.e.: if his parents committed him, it was not "involuntary commitment" from a legal perspective, even if he, as a minor individual, didn't want it.
My thinking is that as a minor he didn't have any legal or practical mechanism to object, and I'm assuming his parents weren't told by a court to commit him.
The language (emphasis mine) in this ATF pdf
suggests it has to be the state that does the commitment, not just your parents.
The only gotcha there is that "parents" might be considered a "lawful authority"; but I've never heard of parents being described like that.
What do you think? My gut says it counts as voluntary, or at least not a trigger for prohibited person status.
My understanding is that it does NOT, unless a court committed him.
i.e.: if his parents committed him, it was not "involuntary commitment" from a legal perspective, even if he, as a minor individual, didn't want it.
My thinking is that as a minor he didn't have any legal or practical mechanism to object, and I'm assuming his parents weren't told by a court to commit him.
The language (emphasis mine) in this ATF pdf
ATF guidance said:...if that person has been formally committed to a mental institution by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority
suggests it has to be the state that does the commitment, not just your parents.
The only gotcha there is that "parents" might be considered a "lawful authority"; but I've never heard of parents being described like that.
What do you think? My gut says it counts as voluntary, or at least not a trigger for prohibited person status.