As a doctor, I’m going to keep asking about guns

KevinMD ^ | 8/9/12 | Suzanne Koven, MD

[Ancesthntr]

Excellent form, thanks for posting it. If 1 in 10 gun owners walked into the doc’s office with it, this practice would stop within a couple of weeks nationwide - word will get around, even if only 1 in 1,000 patients actually presents it to a doc. We have 300,000,000 people, probably at least 1/3 of which see a doc in any given year. Assuming that 1/2 of patients nationwide have a firearm in the home, then 1/6 of the population (roughly 50 million people) who have a firearm in the home will visit a doc in any given year - that’s nearly 1 million per week - let’s see the medical profession ignore THAT.

I would, however, warn anyone who uses that form in a doctor’s office that they may be liable to reimburse the doctor for the cost of a new set of underwear. :>)

[kcvl]

Suzanne Koven M.D.

@SuzanneKovenMD

Primary care doctor at Mass General Hospital in Boston and columnist for the Boston Globe. Tweets are my own.

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[Slings and Arrows]

Explains a lot, really.

[Antoninus]

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).

According to 2004 statistics, MA isn't even in the top 10.Gun violence in the United States by state

Of course, she could be looking at newer statistics, but I doubt it. The website she links to is a gun-grabber think-tank.