[Evan Thomas]

The question on the 4473 refers to people who have been involuntarily committed or adjudicated mentally defective. Both of those require a court judgment. Voluntary commitment -- checking yourself in to an inpatient mental health facility -- is a different thing entirely, and doesn't make you a prohibited person as far as the Feds are concerned.

But standards for state-issued permits vary from state to state, and can be stricter than those on the Federal level. So it's not necessarily a case of "double illegal nonsense."

But it's a bad idea for all sorts of reasons, one of which is that it would be a really good way to discourage people from seeking treatment for mental illness.