Posted on 08/13/2012 2:25:34 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows
Let’s set aside for the moment the question of whether it’s appropriate to talk about gun control in the wake of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado (though I can’t think of a more appropriate time to talk about it). And let’s not consider whether it makes sense that it’s legal to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition on-line in the U.S, without any background check (though could it, really?) And let’s not revisit that old argument about people, and not guns, killing people (though millions of “people,’ including evil and deranged people, do seem to live in countries with negligible amounts of gun violence).
What I’m thinking about today is the role doctors and other health professionals do and should play in preventing the 30,000 deaths and many more injuries in which firearms are involved every year in the U.S.
Behind the closed doors of my exam room, I ask patients many very personal questions: about their sexual behavior, alcohol and drug use, domestic violence, and other sensitive issues.
But there are no questions I ask–and I ask them routinely, especially of new patients–that meet with more surprise than these: “Do you own any firearms? Do you keep them locked and inaccessible to children?”
I believe the questions come as a surprise because people don’t usually think of gun ownership as something about which a doctor would or should be concerned.
But according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, homicide, suicide, and accidents are among the top three causes of death for Americans ages 0-54, and these deaths often involve firearms-over 30,000 per year. That’s seven times as many as die of cervical cancer, and nearly as many as die from pancreatic cancer annually.
It’s seems to me difficult to argue that health professionals shouldn’t be as interested in the prevention of gun violence as in the prevention of other causes of death.
Yet, doctors’ role in counseling patients about the potential danger of firearms is controversial, as expressed in this exchange. Some see such counseling as no different than speaking with patients about safe sex, smoking, and exercise. Some see it as an inappropriate intrusion of the doctor’s political views into the patient’s medical visit and an invasion of the patient’s privacy.
This latter view was in the news last fall when a Florida law, subsequently overturned by a federal judge, banned doctors from counseling patients about firearms, and would have imposed fines or even jail time on, for example, pediatricians who inquired about safe storage of guns in homes where children live.
In my own practice, most patients I ask about guns tell me that they don’t own any. This isn’t surprising because Massachusetts has one of the lowest gun ownership rates of any state in the U.S. (and, as it happens, the lowest rate of gun-related deaths).
And it’s possible that some patients don’t wish to discuss their gun ownership with me and choose not to answer my questions about it.
But occasionally I have a conversation such as I had not long ago with a man who lived alone and kept his loaded guns unlocked and accessible. Now and then his young nieces and nephews visited and it hadn’t occurred to him, until I asked, that his firearms might be a hazard to those children.
I’m going to keep asking about firearms, especially in regard to those at highest risk of harm from them: children, patients struggling with depression, patients with difficult family relationships.
As a doctor, why wouldn’t I?
Suzanne Koven is an internal medicine physician who blogs at In Practice at Boston.com, where this article originally appeared. She is the author of Say Hello To A Better Body: Weight Loss and Fitness For Women Over 50.
LOL...if you are posting here; you’re already on a ‘list’.
According to his own information, there were 554 deaths caused by firearms. Out of 118k unintentional deaths.
Yes, guns should be kept away from kids who haven’t been trained...but where the hell is this guy getting his info?
Obviously MV accidents are worse. But falling kills more. Should we repeal the law of gravity?
And as a patient, I may start asking about your substance abuse; medical doctors have an extremely high rate of drug addiction. Also, doctor, are you involved in any Medicare fraud or other insurance fraud? What are you doing about depression?
Two can play.
According to his own information, there were 554 deaths caused by firearms. Out of 118k unintentional deaths.
Yes, guns should be kept away from kids who haven’t been trained...but where the hell is this guy getting his info?
Obviously MV accidents are worse. But falling kills more. Should we repeal the law of gravity?
“Do you own any firearms? Do you keep them locked and inaccessible to children?”
We where referred to a doctor that asked us this question. We went back to our normal doctor and asked for a new referral. Yes, I said it was none of his business and left.
Discussions about guns have no place in a doctor’s office. It is useless as far as preventing any deaths having to do with guns. Nothing bothers me more than to be filling out a questionaire for a medical exam and being asked do I own any guns. What a worthless question. What if I do. How is asking me going to prevent some kook from using one to harm another person? Tell me how!
Considering that even before Obamacare was voted on in Congress, Obama was calling for medical records to be digitized(centralized for easy government access across agencies) my guess is everything you tell your doctor will be, if not already, accessible by government beauracrats at all levels. If it currently isn’t, it certainly will be. Another individual responding likewise to my earlier post accurately pointed out that it can become a defacto form of registration.
“... you’re already on a “list”.”
Then I am in good company. LOL!!
“(though millions of “people,’ including evil and deranged people, do seem to live in countries with negligible amounts of gun violence).”
Gun violence is just VIOLENCE. It occurrs everywhere. I wonder if the good doctor has considered possible reasons for any uptick in it anywhere? Probably not. She just wants to ban the damn things. She’s not interested in learning anything.
Yes, indeed!
The “good” doctor’s conduct may be unethical...
Discussion about guns in the exam room comes under the definition of a “boundary violation”
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/2nd_Amend/boundary_violation.htm
I store mine in the toy box. Doesn't everyone?
I have a medical use for mine. It's the only way I can relieve the itch on my trigger finger.
"You'll have to ask my Daddy about that. He told me to give you this reply and I'm going to obey him and not answer your question."
I get asked that a lot, which is appropriate.
I only ask about guns as part of the homicidal and suicidal interviews, and laws which would prohibit THAT are foolish.
I can make guns.
Gun haters seem to think that as long as you’re not killed with a gun, you’re not really dead.
what a twit. She may think she is smart but she betrays her ignorance with each sentence
“There are also about 30,000 deaths per year from auto accidents. Does she ask her patients if they have a car? And do they keep their keys in a locked cabinet?”
How about alcohol? How many houses have unattended kids and unsecured alcohol. Heck I don’t even know what the law is here in Texas?
Bears repeating. BUT Yankees in particular New Yorkers and Massholes DO think their opinions are better than anyone else's
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