[Wallace T.]

The problem with the medical industry is that is highly regulated by state governments, as is the insurance industry. The states have fought hard to maintain control over medicine and insurance, in order not to have it slip into predominantly Federal jurisdiction, as has happened with banking, pharmaceuticals, railroads, and airlines. One way the states have accomplished this is to show that they are "tough" regulators, even in relatively conservative states like Virginia. Any given state's medical association is essentially a state-supported guild, not unlike those in medieval Europe, technically private and voluntary, but in actuality quasi-governmental and coercive. Since insurance companies are the primary repayment sources for many physicians, their guidelines compel doctors to perform their services in compliance with those guidelines.

Physicians are likely under pressure by their trade association and insurance companies to be proactive with regard to gun ownership. Additionally, in graduate schools as well as at the undergraduate level, leftist propaganda commingles with "hard" science. As a result, many physicians are liberals and therefore support gun control. At the last Presidential election, there were surveys that showed that people with graduate degrees were almost as likely to vote for Kerry as were those who did not graduate from high school, the low paid workers and welfare recipients that have been a Democrat "core" group since the New Deal era.

Ideally, insurance and medicine are services that should be freed from state regulation. However, that is unlikely to happen in our lifetimes. We are fortunate if we can successfully stop fully socialized medicine and elimination of the free market on vitamins and supplements. Given that we are stuck with a regulated commodity (medicine), it may be necessary to stop insurance firms and state medical associations from covertly promoting an anti-gun agenda. I do not think it is a violation of the doctors' First Amendment rights any more than it is for a postal worker or a soldier being prohibited from engaging in partisan politics by campaigning for a candidate.

[Mamzelle]

re Physicians are likely under pressure by their trade association and insurance companies to be proactive with regard to gun ownership.

Right on target.

re: Additionally, in graduate schools as well as at the undergraduate level, leftist propaganda commingles with "hard" science. As a result, many physicians are liberals and therefore support gun control. At the last Presidential election, there were surveys that showed that people with graduate degrees were almost as likely to vote for Kerry as were those who did not graduate from high school, the low paid workers and welfare recipients that have been a Democrat "core" group since the New Deal era.)))

a clean miss--there's a big difference between a professional (and I'd include accountants, MBAs, etc. here) and a MA in Philosophy. It's a rare doc who voted for Kerry, and a rare doc who'd belong to the Lawyer Party.