Posted on 07/30/2014 12:46:11 PM PDT by Q-ManRN
As a pediatrician, I have one, straightforward professional obligation: to safeguard and support the health and wellbeing of my patients. In my case, those patients are children, but you could change the age range of the people coming into the office and apply that statement to any medical provider.
Asking about guns in the house is no exception. When I ask parents if there are firearms in the home, and if so how they are secured, it is for the sole purpose of keeping their children safe.
Physicians in Florida are being threatened with a law that, if enacted, will seriously hamper their ability to do their jobs. The Firearms Owners' Privacy Act, passed in 2011, would subject medical providers to fines and a potential loss of licensure for asking patients about gun ownership or recording that information in the medical record if it is not “relevant to the patient's medical care or safety.”
Gun advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association have long opposed the AAP’s efforts to strengthen gun laws. But the Florida law has no effect on gun ownership or access. Its insidious reach enters into medical offices and chokes off the free-speech rights of the people trying to work there.
As much as the NRA and its ilk want to deny it, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death. Acknowledging that fact is not the same thing as taking the gun away. The Florida law seeks to “protect” gun owners from even having to be informed about truths they’d prefer to ignore, and seeks to cast medical providers in an unflattering light for having the temerity to question them.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
We went to him to discuss our medical concerns and then he could identify safety issues that were relevant to those concerns. There were an immense number of potential safety issues that we never discussed. For example, getting hit by a train even though there were train tracks near our house. My pediatrician would have known that that job was the responsibility of my parents.
Responsible parents that own firearms are aware that accidents can happen with a firearm just like any number of dangerous objects in their home. They do not need a physician to educate them about that fact. There are already a wealth of resources and options readily available to those parents. And criminals are not going to discuss storing their illegal firearms used in crimes with doctors.
My pediatrician never asked us about firearms because he left his political views at home where they belonged. The current debate over the ownership and use of firearms is taking place in legislatures and courts around our nation. That is where that debate belongs, not in our doctors' offices. Professional speech for healthcare workers is properly limited in order to ensure that they do not interject their personal political desires into their professional relationships.
Dr. Saunders exemplifies why these limits are necessary with political statements like "As much as the NRA and its ilk want to deny it, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death." or "By upholding this disgraceful law, the 11th Circuit Court has demonstrated allegiance to an ideology that favors the Second Amendment..." Do your patients a favor doc and keep your political ideology out of your professional practice.
Never leave your kid unattended with a doc. They could be a member of the Obamacare gun registry mafia. And if they ask you about it, say “None of your business, scum!”
2nd Amendment Florida ping
Axe away pal.
I got nuttin to say.
Any doctor so interrogating me is going to get his feelings hurt.
Does he ask whether they live in a dangerous neighborhood? Whether their school provides security?
Patients have the right to tell you it’s none of your business. And to change doctors.
You do not have a “right” to ask about guns.
In a world where cakemakers are forced to serve gay marriages against their will I don’t want to hear condescending lectures from my doctor.
Excellent post. I’m a physician. If I had to cover all the potential risks to life and limb with my patients I would never get around to addressing problems that really matter, especially when Obamacare will necessitate I spend about 5 minutes with each patient and get paid for only 90 seconds of that visit.
We have multiple generations and lots of children in them in my family that have owned firearms and to date not one accidental death or injury has occurred.
My kids are never alone with their doctor so the question will be handled by me and dependent on the mood I am in.
While in Colorado (Fort Carson) my daughter (16) had a doctors appointment. I figured she was old enough to tell the doc what was wrong so I waited in the outer room. A nurse came to get me and said that since she was under 18 I was required to go with her. After a few minutes of the doc (COL)talking to her he asked me to leave the room. I questioned him on why I was required to be there and then asked to leave. He said it is a privacy issue. I told him that everything about her was my business.
I ranted for a few minutes on government usurping my rights regarding my own child. He said he understood my concerns and again asked me to step out. NEVER let the government have control of your children! EVER!
I told my kids to say “no”. Nothing else. Because they’re right, my guns sank with my boat.
My daughter has had her own gun since she was 6 with never so mush as an accidental misfire when practicing. She is safer with a gun than a 25 year old woman with a crazed boyfriend or estranged husband is without.
You’re far to polite in your response to the Doc.
But after my 4 letter word rant to the socialist, marxist scum.. I’d pick my kid up and walk out the door never to be seen by him/her again.
Yo “Doc”. Do you also ask about the kids riding in motor vehicles, playing on slides or “monkey bars”? How about if there are any “recreational drugs” in the home? Or hot dogs that kids can choke on or peanut butter that can cause a serious allergic reaction. Then there are those big screen TVs that can fall over and crush the child. And what about...
As much as the Liberals and their ilk want to deny it, having a sharpened pencil in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death.....
Had any doctor ever asked such a question, my kid would have had a different pediatrician before close of business that day.
You’re right, Doc. You have every right to ask. And I have every right to refuse to tell you, to tell you to mind your own business, or to just plain lie.
My doctor talked to me about gun ownership the last time I saw him. He’d just picked up a nice Mauser in 7x57. We talk motorcycles a lot also.
Teach your kids to say “you will have to ask my dad”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.