Posted on 02/14/2017 11:35:00 AM PST by PROCON
Healey, along with members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police, announced their gun resources for patients this week. (Photo: Mass.gov)
State Attorney General Martha Healey teamed up with the Massachusetts Medical Society on Monday to provide voluntary guidance to heath care professionals in the state on guns.
Announced at Boston Medical Center, Healey and Mass Med are providing two pamphlets and free training on talking to patients about firearms.
“While the vast majority of gun owners are responsible and deeply committed to gun safety, this remains a public health issue, and conversations between patients and health care providers are critically important to preventing gun-related injury and death,” said Healey in a statement.
Compiled as a result of a yearlong effort by the attorney general’s office, Mass Med, and two police chief lobby groups, the literature developed for the program includes a four-page pamphlet for patients covering Massachusetts safe storage laws while touching on disposing of unwanted guns and suicide prevention.
Another two-page pamphlet, directed at health professionals, concerns how to talk to their possibly at risk patients about guns and offers suggestions.
“For example, rather than advising a patient to get rid of a gun, you could suggest that there are a number of different ways to make guns less accessible, ranging from selling/surrendering the gun, to disposing of ammunition, to temporarily storing the gun outside the home,” one suggestion reads.
Mass Med hosts both the literature and other resources, some of which count as continuing education for health care professionals.
“Gun violence is a major public health threat,” said Mass Medical President James S. Gessner, M.D., “and physicians can play a key role in curbing the violence by educating patients about the risks of gun ownership and encouraging our colleagues to talk to their patients.”
The prospect of gun control as a public health issue has proven controversial in recent years with several medical lobby groups banding together to fight a Florida law preventing conversations with patients on their firearms. A 2016 survey published by The Annals of Internal Medicine argues two-thirds of Americans are OK with doctors discussing guns.
The National Rifle Association’s affiliate group in the state contended via social media that the move by Healey and Mass Medical was “dishonest grandstanding” while pointing out the gun safety pamphlet contains no actual NRA-recommended firearms safety “golden rules.”
Mass Medical, for its part, also took to social media, tweeting out the link to the new materials with the tagline, “Learn how to talk to your patients about gun safety.”
Will my doctor talk to me about my investment choices? About proper lawn care? About the best brand of kitchenware?
To legal owners only - those that have unlicensed or stolen guns need not talk with their doc.
The best response to this is for gun liberty groups to come up with “approximate” statements that lie to the doctor about their gun ownership. That is, everybody needs to paraphrase their statement to say that they do not own guns.
Let the gun liberty groups tell the medical organizations what they are doing, and why. They are used to liberal groups trying to coerce them. They need to tell doctors it is their own fault for *forcing* their patients to lie to them, and that medical doctors lose credibility, respect and *status* when they try to do so, “as agents of the state.”
Since no matter what you tell the doctor, it will be entered into your medical record, and immediately be accessible to no fewer than 20 *federal* agencies, and likely many *state* agencies, it is imperative that you *absolutely do not* admit to owning a gun or guns.
Children must be strictly taught and reminded that they must never tell *anyone* about guns owned by the family, and why. Children need to take this extremely seriously. This means no bragging about gun ownership, no admitting to gun use, no nothing not. This must be taught to them as vital to their families well being.
The gun rights organizations need to make this personal with doctors, even going so far as to publish the names of doctors who are “anti-gun”, and so cannot be trusted as with confidential information as physicians. They care more about what the government wants than what their patients need.
I recently changed doctors here in Alabama. In the first appointment, they went through a list of questions. When it came to the gun question, I said “Declined to answer”, and she said that the answers are not shared, and I said that I still declined to answer.
What I have or don’t have is not their problem.
NO!
Your move ...
Haha! My podiatrist (who I must see every 60 days) is a right-minded young man. When he works on my feet we discuss "that lunatic AG Healey" and other matters...Have you been to the range?...Gotten any new pieces?...things of that sort. He even has offered to loan me his AR-15 so I can try it out.
If only all my Docs were like that.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw a doctor. I have nothing to tell them.”
WOW ! You must thank the GOOD LORD every day for that fact...
My chiropractor doesn’t even blink when I remove my GLOCK, with holster, and put it to the side. She has a GLOCK among others and belongs to same range. My sports doctor and I talk knives. Her hubby has a SIG. My medical doc and her nurse don’t blink when I take my shirt off and there is a two mags on my left side (gun is in holster in bag at my feet. My optometrist and I discussed left eye dominance right hand shooting. She treats police officers too.
She’s an idiot.
I avoid doctors. The last time I saw our doctor was probably five or more years ago. We have a new doctor now, but I’ve never met him.
Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO) should be all over this. Talking about guns with patients, unless they volunteer the information, is a professional boundary violation, and should be punished by loss of license, at least.
Gotta hand it to the vatos with the pistola’s...they don’t have there fingers on the trigger...the vato with the shotgun...not so good!!
When the AAPPCA reared its ugly head a small group of doctors here in Augusta , Maine stopped taking any insurance ...they went strictly cash/credit...prices are posted for every procedure and are very low ...they save mountains of cash just from a labor and billing standpoint ...I have never had an insurance policy from obama/pelosi....made sure that i owed a little bit in fed tax every year and have never been penalized or bothered...I have a private medical service end of story...I’m also a former combat medic and I have never even contemplated going to the VA.
Damn. That is so funny. I wish I had seen that a couple of years ago. I went to an obviously liberal doc who asked me about sex - straight, gay, whatever. I was shocked. So I asked him if animals were an option. He got laughing.
Then he immediately moved on to more relevant questions. So I told him he hadn't asked me about firearms. And would he like to see my glock? I pulled my purse up to his desk. So funny.
This is so strange, I just this minute got a phone call from a woman asking to speak with John. Obviously a telemarketer. I demanded to know if she was his girlfriend. And why was she calling his house on Valentine's Day evening while we were celebrating our relationship. Lots of fun.
Maura Healey is a scumbag as are the majority of the politicians in my former state.....people are amazed that I have conservative views after being educated in Massachusetts...I left the state for good about a decade ago , it is far to corrupt ... all aspects of government and the services they provide...ALL of them.
WOW ! You must thank the GOOD LORD every day for that fact...
He is our physician. We put our trust in Him.
If possible get/have a doctor who hunts and owns guns himself.
We had a new doctor about 4 years ago. He is a gun owner and former hunter.
Here is how my first visit went re guns.
Dr. Do you have guns at home?
Me. Yes, and I have a California approved gun safe.
Dr. Good.
Following yearly visits.
Dr. Do you still have your gun safe.
Me. Yes.
Dr. Good.
My wife got the same ? on her yearly visits. She said the same, “We have a California approved gun safe.”
Then our doctor moved on to normal health related ?’s.
Doctor: “Do you own a gun?”
Patient: “Do you still beat your wife?”
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