For the record, I’ve never asked if a patient is a gun owner. It doesn’t matter in my line of work. But it certainly may be relevant for a pediatrician to instruct parents about proper securing of firearms, seeing as accidental deaths are a leading cause of death for children and teens. Do you think the physicians are part of some scam to get a list of gun owners, or are they simply trying to educate the parents of kids who may be around guns? What about free speech? Does anyone see this as an intrusion into the free speech rights of the physician? Maybe it should be illegal for third parties to have access to any records (including medical records) which contain information about gun ownership. That would make a lot more sense than sending a physician to jail for a year for simply asking a question and trying to potentially educate parents about the safe use and storage of firearms.
It is not the job of a pediatrician. This is just a more subtle version of “it’s for the children”. There is no effective protection for the databases these medical snitches are creating, no matter what some regulation will say. Jail would be an eloquent disincentive.
Taken at face value, that is a very misleading statement. Yes it's true but many more children die in accidental drownings, vehicle accidents, fires, falls, sporting incidents, and such then do from firearm misadventures. If you were to rank the type of "accident" by frequency, it would become obvious that firearms are a relatively minor cause of incident. Last time I looked drownings were one of the major causes of child death, including cases of toddlers drowning in mop buckets (sad but true).
On the topic, my opinion is that the bill is an overreach and is not necessary. If your doctor wants to ask questions that you disapprove of, change doctors.
Regards,
GtG
And If I recall,children are more likely to die from a whole list of other cause than guns;only the politically dishonest government and anti-gun groups count teenage gang members killed in drug gang activities as "child victims of gun violence".