Posted on 02/09/2013 7:12:07 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Do you have a gun in your home?
For some, that's a loaded question - particularly when asked by a doctor.
A debate is simmering over when and whether physicians should be allowed to talk to their patients about firearms.
Doctor groups say physicians are obligated to warn their patients about guns along with other health risks, such as riding in a car without wearing a seat belt. However, gun rights advocates balk at what they see as a needless invasion of privacy and blatant attempt at gun control advocacy.
State and federal lawmakers are weighing in.
President Barack Obama's plan to reduce gun violence says that doctors should be permitted to ask about firearms in a patient's home and safe storage of the guns "especially if their patients show signs of certain mental illness or if they have a young child or mentally ill family member at home."
The plan also seeks to clarify that the Affordable Care Act doesn't "prohibit or otherwise regulate communication between doctors and patients, including about firearms." More guidance on the issue is forthcoming, the administration says.
Earlier this month, Kansas legislators introduced a bill barring doctors other than psychiatrists from inquiring about firearms in the home when asking about a patient's personal information and medical history.
Florida passed a similar law in 2011. A federal judge blocked it last year, citing a violation of physicians' First Amendment rights. The ruling has been appealed.
No one has taken up the issue in Virginia yet.
Local doctors say they object to laws that intrude on the relationship between a physician and a patient.
"The patient-physician relationship should be a safe and even sacred relationship where the patient feels safe, feels comfortable in discussing anything they need to discuss," said Dr. Christine Matson, the chairwoman of Eastern Virginia Medical School's department of family and community medicine. "If there are constraints in terms of what I can ask, that also limits the doctor-patient relationship. I don't think government ought to go there."
Matson asks her patients about guns during their routine check-ups. She gives them a seven-page questionnaire that includes a section called "Behaviors that may put your health at risk" with questions about tobacco, alcohol, drugs and environmental toxins, among other subjects.
"Are there guns in your home?" is on page three, between "Ever forced to have sex?" and "A working smoke detector?"
Matson said the screening helps primary care doctors take an active role in promoting health and disease prevention, rather than just reacting to injuries and illnesses that already exist.
"I would say strongly that anything that confers risk is a valid part of the discussion with the physician," she said.
Patients rarely, if ever, bristle at the question, Matson said.
Other Hampton Roads doctors said the same, pointing out that their query comes along with others about equally sensitive subjects, such as illegal drugs and sexual preference.
"It's just what we do as doctors," said Dr. Phillip Snider, a family physician with Amelia Medical Associates in Norfolk. "We poke and prod in places that people don't enjoy."
Still, some people - including Charlie Pike - think that asking about firearms in the home goes too far. The 29-year-old Chesapeake resident has a concealed-weapon permit and wears a gun most days - including to medical appointments.
Pike's doctor asked about hunting after he saw the gun, and Pike was happy to chat. He would have been less responsive to questions about how many firearms he owned and how he stored them, however.
"It's not any of his business if firearm ownership is not related to the visit," said Pike, a production designer.
Doctors say the question gives them a chance to talk about gun safety with patients and their families. Snider lumps the conversation in with other "practical, low-cost, high-yield advice."
"It's stuff that needs repeating over and over," he said. "You tell kids to wear their bicycle helmets. You tell people to wear their seat belts. To use sunscreen, get adequate sleep, things like that."
Dr. John Harrington, a pediatrician, has asked his patients about guns and ammunition in their homes. The answers sometimes surprise parents.
"Kids tend to know a lot more than what parents believe," said Harrington, division director for General Academic Pediatrics. "You may think that you have something secure, when in reality it may not be that secure."
Most doctors recommend keeping guns unloaded, separate from ammunition and locked away.
Dr. Timothy Wheeler and other gun rights advocates wonder why they should listen to physicians' advice about weapons.
"They have absolutely no training about firearms in medical school or residency," said Wheeler, director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation. "Doctors and doctor organizations have consistently refused for the last 20 years to work with the real experts in firearms safety, groups like the NRA, groups like the NRA's state-affiliate gun owner organizations, groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation."
Snider said his advice comes from his own experience handling guns when he was younger.
Harrington said the topic is tricky because there's not a lot of new research. Federal health agencies have been banned from studying gun violence since the mid-1990s because of concerns about using taxpayer money on a politicized topic.
The Norfolk pediatrician said his suggestions to families follow universal themes that apply with other child safety measures: If you make something less accessible, it's less likely to be used inappropriately.
However, Harrington said: "I would rather have evidence to go by, like I have with vaccines."
Dr. Firoza Faruqui takes her cue from guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics. When talking to patients' families, she cites the group's statistics showing that firearms in homes are more likely to harm family members or friends than to be used in self-defense.
Faruqui, a pediatrician with the Hampton Roads Community Health Center in Portsmouth, also tells families the academy's stance on the best way to avoid gun-related injuries in children: have no firearms in their home. She knows parents could be offended by such a suggestion, just as they could be offended by the notion that their smoking harms the health of their children.
Parents usually don't get rid of their guns after talking with her, but they often take pains to store their weapons properly, she said.
For Faruqui, the message isn't political.
"I'm not trying to control any guns," she said. "I'm just trying to keep children safe."
But Wheeler says the American Academy of Pediatrics and other doctor groups have taken a side in the gun debate. He fears physicians will misuse patients' trust to advance a political agenda.
He also is concerned about what happens to the information that patients provide. Doctors said they document whether a patient's home has a firearm in the medical record, but that the file is protected by privacy laws.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, generally prohibits health workers from sharing patients' medical information without their permission. However, it allows disclosure under some circumstances.
Dr. Melissa Young, a New Jersey-based endocrinologist, worries that the government will elbow its way into doctors' conversations with patients about guns. It's already nosing into discussions about smoking, she said.
A federal program encouraging health providers to use electronic health records requires doctors to document the smoking status of at least 60 percent of their patients in their medical records. However, doctors do not report the data to the government.
Still, Young wonders if physicians may one day be required to report patient gun ownership information - even though the Affordable Care Act contains language saying it doesn't authorize the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services to collect or maintain records on legal ownership or possession of firearms or ammunition.
"I'm not against the physicians asking it. There are certain patients to whom the question has to be asked," Young said. "But I think that the answers to that need to stay within the physician's office."
“I’d always assumed that if you ever passed a background check or bought ammo/supplies with a debit card, the government already knew.”
You’re likely right, but they’re not the people that are being sought out. They’re looking for the hard-core types, that don’t take any crap from the government.
So they ask this question, knowing that if it’s thrown back in their face, they’ve smoked out another one that hiding under the radar.
““I don’t discuss my personal or family security measures with anybody but members of my family.””
Your answer is then in the books. And bit-by-bit they build up their database, knowing that evasive answers are just the same as a direct “yes” answer.
Then they also need to warn factory folks to remember their safety glasses, steel-toed boots, and to never operate equipment without all the guards in working order and in place. They need to tell drivers to be on the lookout for the other guy, to leave lots of stopping room and to obey all traffic signals, especially RR crossings. They need to warn those of sexual activity age of all the STDs out there, especially the really nasty ones that run rampant through the homosexual community.
Them doctors are going to be really busy once this goes to its natural conclusion.
“Doctor groups say physicians are obligated to warn their patients about guns”
I have a feeling that law-abiding gun owners know more about their guns than than any doctor than any doctor can tell them. That is a BS reason for asking this asinine and and intrusive question.
Then: “Molon Labe!”
I have laid my life on the line for Our Nation for over twenty years in the Corps. I’m tired of this crap and I’d be whole heartedly happy to defend the US Constitution again.
Our County Sheriff knows me and he knows where I live.
I knew that I was playing with fire taking on a Marine...but I had to try. GOD BLESS YOU!!!
“Just lie.. and make their little big brother program a bunch of useless data.”
Yep.
Rather than bristle and become confrontational (which _will_ end up being recorded and eventually used against you), take the former first lady’s famouse advice to “just say no”.
When government itself has become unworthy of respect, consider it to be a conservative version of “taqiyaa”.
The real problem here is not when the good doctor asks you this question.
It when he asks your KIDS. How can you guarantee their response?
And what about teachers, etc. asking the same things?
What will happen to the information they gather?
Thank you, Sir.
Here’s another tactic we might use:
“Doctor, does your Malpractice Insurance cover you for violating my Constitutional 4th Amendment Right, to wit:
“The right of people in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no WARRANTS shall issue, but upon PROBABLE CAUSE, supported by OATH or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized?”
“Doctor, do you possess a Law Enforcement Official’s Badge?”
“Doctor, do have a Warrant for probable cause signed under Oath or affirmation by a Magistrate to ask me if I have firearms in my home?”
Any time, we need you guys (to compensate for people like me - LOL).
At your point in life, I have nothing to say but GIVE THEM HELL!!! They are messing with a Marine and they will find out the consequences.
Biased researchers who know what answer they want the data to fit, then only accept data that does. In this particular case, the "researcher" (a physician) included as data, shootings done by gang-bangers that were "associates" of those owning guns. Actual family situations of relative-shooting-relative are virtually non-existent.
The flaws in his research have long been found and pointed out, but he keeps bringing it up, despite that.
I also appreciate that he used to pay me some good fees for tax services rendered before I retired.
I scratch his back, he checks my prostate.
“So, can you tell me the four rules of firearm safety? No? Then you’ve proven yourself unqualified on the subject. Want to go shooting some time and learn?”
That’s the best one yet!
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