PAL Licanse and the personal questions they ask

Hermid

Hermid

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I kinda ran into a bump while reading through the PAL application.

Have you experiences depression with in the last 5 years.

My issue with this is, 10-5 years ago I had problems with depression and anxiety. My doctor just handed me medication and never diagnosed me with anything( as far as I know), and a therapist said, it was largely situational depression mixed with anxiety. I don't feel depressed or have anxiety problems anymore, and have not taken medication.

I'm stuck on how to answer this questions. Because by the time I send my PAL application in(I plan on taking my fire arms safety course\hunters ed next month some time) it would been over 5 years by a couple of months.. If I answer yes, they could have grounds to reject the application, I do plan on attaching a letter explaining it., If I answer No due to it being 5 years ago, and they look at my medical records they could try and say I provided false information, even though it was over 5 years by a few months.
 
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I do not believe they pull medical records on a PAL application. Maybe after the fact if something bad was to occur, but not during the application process.
Most provinces do not have centralized electronic health records, so you would likely be asked to provide doctor contacts. Never heard of that happening yet.
 
Even answering yes will not get you a decline. I answered yes and have my PAL, and am in the midst of my RPAL application.

There are a couple extra hoops to jump through with the "yes" answer; I am being sent out a form to fill out explaining my situation, and faxing it back and it will carry forward from there. But as others mentioned, even if you were 1 day over that 5 year mark, I'd answer no, and it would be truthful as well.
 
It's more a question of have you been taking meds for depression lately, hell in the world we live in if everyone was screened for depression 2 out of 3 would be given meds. Like someone else said it's a line they've drawn, they also make you bother 2 peoples you know as references and don't even bother calling them so...
Just answer no and forget it.
My two bits
 
No diagnosis but the Doc gave you meds anyway? Odd. Still you weren't diagnosed with anything. And it's more than 5 years.
 
sunray said:
No diagnosis but the Doc gave you meds anyway? Odd. Still you weren't diagnosed with anything. And it's more than 5 years.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I came in and said how I was feeling, and it was a problem, and he just handed me a prescription, I was in there for less then 5 minutes(I'm really pissed off at him for doing that, because the meds made things worse).... that was 7 years ago... but I went to therapy 5 years ago, after having problems with the medication I was on..
 
sunray said:
No diagnosis but the Doc gave you meds anyway? Odd. Still you weren't diagnosed with anything. And it's more than 5 years.
Click to expand...

They often take payments from the drug companies as rewards for prescribing these drugs.

and yes the drugs do make things worse, it's a crime what they are doing.
 
the fact that you're thinking enough about it to ask here, says (to me, at least) that you are interested in following the best course of action.

So that is, answer truthfully.

If it specifically asks 5 years, and you're past 5 years - say no.

I answered a truthful yes, and had to have my Dr. fill out a form that I was being medically supervised in my course of medication for treatment.
(at least that was the basic gist of what I remember the whole thing was about.)

And that's not a bad thing. Your Dr. will probably sign (for a fee), unless they actually have concerns.
In which case, it might not be a bad idea to get *yourself* handled before worrying about firearms ownership.

Just my 2 cents.
:)
 
cheeseburgereatin said:
They often take payments from the drug companies as rewards for prescribing these drugs.

and yes the drugs do make things worse, it's a crime what they are doing.
Click to expand...

I take the question at face value too, its been over five years, and by the time my application goes in its going to be 5 and a half years.

He was a good doctor, but he was not good at dealing with mental health issues. Medication is not meant for long term use. Police aren't very fond of anti-depressants either, because of the large amount of calls they receive over people having problems with them. However the attitude for handing out med's like that has been changing the last 5 years.
 
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