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.
The correct answer to theirs, or anyone’s questions not under a legal compulsory perjury condition is, “No.”
Actually, many doctors do ask about things like that - not skydiving, but more common things like pools. I’ve only been asked the gun question once, after my daughter was born, and it was within the context of a series of questions about storage of household chemicals, car seat installation, whether I had a pool, etc - general baby-proofing/child-proofing type stuff. I didn’t have a problem with it in that context, though I would have a problem if asked for no legitimate reason (which I understand happens quite a bit).
About 25 years ago we were at the pediatricians office for some routine thing or another. The doctor asked me if I owned any guns. I said yes. He then said, “Do you know how many children are killed by guns every year?” To which I replied, “No, but I’ll bet its far fewer than are killed by malpracting doctors.”
We were asked to find another doctor.
I would not be offended by that statement...but when a new pediatrician asked me if we had firearms in our house, I told her it was none of her business. When she went on to explain that this was only in reference to protecting children, I then asked her why she didn't ask me if we had a swimming pool and if we did, was there a fence built to code that surrounded it?
She had an interesting look on her face with that question.
The barf alert was implicit in the title.
Precisely.
Good points. What I’m illuding to is a certain element within the conservative Chrisitan community that are using Romans Chapter 13 as a commandment that requires the Christian to submit to government as long as they aren’t specifically asking you to do something directly contrary to scripture. I personally know Christians, even politically conservative, pro-American Christians who believe the American Revolution was a sin against God because of their interpretation of Romans 13, although they acknowledge that the nation has certainly been blessed by God inspite of the “sin”. No kidding.
“On the laptop’s main screen displaying my medical records is my driver’s license photograph, obtained from the state’s division of motor vehicles. I did not give the doctor’s office my driver’s license photo.”
Wow, interesting. I can’t say I’m surprised. The key thing now is to be ready and play the game back. The more intrusive government is, the more people MUST be prepared to lie. In the Soviet Union, that was often the only way to stay out of the Gulags (i.e., basically death camps).
As an interesting aside, one of my kids had a really tough time writing an essay for the SAT - he would just freeze when we practiced and got a question like:
“Should people respect and tolerate everyone’s opinions, or should people take a stand against opinions they consider to be wrong? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.” (pulled from a website)
I simply told him to lie and make up a stories for examples, and then to add a little left-wing twist (such as admiring Al Gore, Clinton, or Obama) - since it was likely a school teacher would be grading it. It worked and he did fine.
It could happen, although to make that data link accurately, they have to shut down private sales nationwide first, and that is certainly on the docket if Obama wins in November.
So do I, sport...I have lived south and north and west and the people up here are far more arrogant than the south or west...we'll just have to disagree on this one...
Amen Brother.
She would ask me once and I would hit the door after telling her what I thought of her.
If she is rude enough to shove her liberal crap at me, I am rude enough to give her my answer.
She wil be fine in Massachusetts, most of her patients are as liberal as she is.
Very insightful and thought provoking post (as usual), Cvengr! If a patient replies, “None of your d*mn business”.. they can note “angry response”. Even if the patient replies, “I refuse to answer” that can show “deceit and refusal” so essentially the answer is “yes”. I am thinking a simple, “no”. No long in depth answer .. just a simple lie. (sort of like my listed weight on my drivers license).
Yep. She should ask anyone over the age of 70 if they are driving and if so, put it in the medical database so the government can take away their keys. That would save more people than taking away guns.
New Yorkers are like plague rats. They befoul everything they touch and spread the disease of liberalism wherever they go.
Case in point, my other home, Florida. Zero won Florida by about 236,000 votes. 312,000 new yorkers moved to Florida from 2000 to 2008. New Yorkers voted 63% for Zero. So if New Yorkers kept their voting patterns when they moved to Florida (and have you ever know a NYer to change their mind? They're SUPERIOR to those of us in "fly over country" and their opinions are superior don'tchaknow) then 196,000 of the 0bama votes in Florida came from New Yorkers. If you add massholes and New jerseymites who also moved to FL, then that is enough to have given 0 the state of Fl.
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