A federal judge has ruled that a history of involuntary commitment to a hospital for mental health reasons is not enough to bar a person from owning firearms under federal law.

U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson of the Western District of Pennsylvania's ruling came in plaintiff Alton Franklin's lawsuit against the federal government, in which Franklin claimed he was unconstitutionally stripped of his right to bear arms because of a less-than-24-hour hospitalization for “acute psychosis,” according to Gibson's opinion.

Gibson's ruling focused on 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(4), the federal statute that lays out the circumstances for prohibition of firearm ownership for a person deemed “a mental defective,” and its interplay with Section 302 of the Pennsylvania Mental Health Procedures Act, detailing involuntary commitment for mental health reasons.