title: Gun laws and the involuntarily committed: a California road map.
abstract: The 2007 incident at Virginia Tech brought the question of gun ownership by the mentally ill to the forefront of public attention. Moreover, it underscored the potentially devastating consequences of the imperfect connection between federal and state laws that apply to the right of gun ownership by a psychiatric patient. The laws are complex, and, as demonstrated in this article, conflicting. We present a case report of an involuntarily committed patient in the state of California, and discuss details of state and federal laws that applied to him.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, 14445 Olive View Drive, Sylmar, CA 91342, USA. sobzi@mac.com
authors.forename: Sohrab
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zahedi
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Burchuk
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kopelowicz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D002961:Civil Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D005389:Firearms / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010067:Ownership / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence