Posted on 04/28/2008 7:03:39 PM PDT by Siberian-psycho
A friend of mine took his two-year old to the doctor for a check up, but before the checkup there would be some questions. The worst being, "are there any guns in the home". My friends's wife wisely lied to them and said no. My friend has a sizeable collection. Does anyone know what this is all about, has it become common practice? Why is a doctor asking this question? Why does it matter to them? Has some law been slipped through?
My kids were asked all kinds of questions at the doctor, guns, seatbelts, smoking etc.
I stopped taking them to the doctor.
They are older (8 & 10) but I found it intrusive and didn’t go back.
Yeah... So, this story surfaces usually once a year, sometimes it gets put out there twice a year. Definitely truth to it. As in anything, there are those who have an agenda. The trick is in finding someone who’s agenda matches your own.
Did they say you had to answer the questions, or were they just prying into your lives?
Yes it is becoming a common practice.
It is not a legal issue, but an association issue. The association that Pediatricians belong pressure their members to ask these questions and turn in the answers to the association who is collecting the data to prove that gun ownership and other things is a grave danger to children.
You are lucky the parent was even in the room. Usually the Doc ask to speak with the child alone without telling the parent what questions are being asked.
Tell your friend that either A. politely tell the Doctor to mind their own business or find a Pediatrician that doesn’t adhere to this questioning.
a year or so ago I heard,here,this was going to start.Some anti gun MD’s I believe implemented it
I don’t think there has been anything passed. Do you have any children? I’m asking because mine are 14 and 10 and they/we have been asked whether they sit in a regulation car seat/wear bike helmets/climb on monkey bars/if WE smoke and asked my 10 year old, not me, whether she would be interested in the HPV vaccine.
I don’t think there has been anything passed. Do you have any children? I’m asking because mine are 14 and 10 and they/we have been asked whether they sit in a regulation car seat/wear bike helmets/climb on monkey bars/if WE smoke and asked my 10 year old, not me, whether she would be interested in the HPV vaccine.
They were actually asking the kids themselves. Of course the kids answered.
None of it is anyone’s business. They don’t really know about Daddy’s guns (in cases in the back of our closet), and could answer truthfully about the rest but what the crap does any of it have to do with a six year old check-up.
When I was a kid, in the stone age, a baby saw a doctor until school age and then again when they were sick. I probably would have continued for the yearly checkups but not after the quiz.
Me too.
Can you imagine what universal health care could be like if doctors are already doing this kind of commie garbage?
No, I do not have any children yet, but thankfully I live in the freedom of the Muslim World. (Sarc)
That said, it might not be a bad question for a doc to ask in a situation where there was a known history of violence or spousal abuse.
Can anyone say police state. Everyone is in your business these days to protect you from yourself
Surely someone has a copy of that statement created for the doctor to sign stating the extent of his firearms training and that he would be held responsible for the safety of the family if he recommended that firearms not be in the home.
Good info there. Good place to start with regards to dealing with doctors.
The only thing wrong with just not going back to that doctor is that it won't change his behavior at all. Anyone who is offended by these invasive, personal questions needs to sit the doctor down and explain exactly why you will no longer be his patient. If enough people did that, I think even the most anti-gun doctor would care more about the $$$$ going away, instead of asking asinine anti-gun questions that have nothing whatsoever to do with patient health.
They are asking about smoking. Gets put into your record and becomes secret, so everybody knows it.
It’s a good thing I’ve never had this encounter.
The Dr. or Nurse asking the questions would get an ear full!
“Since you seem to believe that your intrusive, amoral, socialist, pantywaist, agenda is more important than medicine, you’re fired!”
ping
That question is a BOUNDARY VIOLATION. Tell your Doc - he/she will know what that is.
When I was 14 or so and sprained my wrist and went in for an x-ray, the x-ray tech asked me if I thought I could be pregnant. I just said “what?!?” looked at her like she was from another planet... and she told me they had to ask all girls that question. Later, when I was more or less alone in the x-ray room, someone else asked me how I had hurt my wrist, and where the big, bright red, diagonal scar on said wrist had come from (OK, I’ll admit that one made me look like a cutter at best). They did ask whether I wore a helmet when I was snowboarding, though, but that sort of made sense cause that’s what I had been doing when I hurt my wrist in the first place. Beyond that, I don’t remember any interrogation about things like seat belts, bike helmets, or smoking. I was asked about the HPV vaccine at my last doctors’ visit, but I don’t think that was surprising or inappropriate considering I’m in college and therefore its target demographic.
Yes, I have heard of them asking kids if the parents smoke.. me I steer clear of doctors these days unless I am sick.. and when I do need to go, I always answer NO to the smoking question.. never had anyone give me any trouble about it.
Last time I went to a dentist they tried to probe and poke me for tons of info with a new patient questionnaire.. I left lots of it blank but made a point to answer NO to the smoking question.
Its flat out none of their business.
Number of physicians in the US = 700,000
Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year = 120,000
Accidental deaths per physician = 0.171
Number of gun owners in the US = 80,000,000
Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) = 1,500
Accidental deaths per gun owner = 0.0000188
Therefore, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Might be fun to answer “Yeah, I’ve got an ought-six that the barrel is shot out on. I need to get it rebarreled - what do you charge for that?”
The American Pediatrics Association has added those questions on the “you ought to ask mothers and kids” questions.
Do you have guns in the house? (danger to the kids)
Have there been any changes in the household? (Daddy leaving, grandma moves in)
Does anyone smoke?
It’s under the idea that they need to look for abuse. Yet they don’t consider that not having protection (a gun) could be endangering the children if an intruder intent on maim and murder and rape breaks in.
From an email...
Doctors and Guns
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Health Human Services.
Guns
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is 80 million.
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188.
Math
.171/.000188 = 909 Thus, statistically, doctors are approximately 900 times more dangerous than gun owners.
Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”
NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR. Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand.
Out of concern for the public at large, I have withheld the statistics on lawyers for the fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention and therefore be counterproductive!
For all the docs on this forum, thanks a lot. The studies that the numbers come from are lame, limited to two hospitals, IIRC, used extrapolted results, included pharmacy and nursing errors, etc.
Sorry.
I received the email I copied that from in 2005. It could be considerably older in origin.
Especially considering the lawyer quip at the end, I posted it tongue-in-cheek, unverified.
Thanks for pointing out the inaccuracies.
They bought into the nanny state/public health/preventive medicine agenda which includes gun grabbing and a lot of lame articles in the medical literature about thr hazards of gun ownership. It might involved liability insurance premiums for pediatricians. I'm not a pediatrician.
American Academy of Pediatrics amici brief in Heller nee Parker, aka the D.C. gun ban case pending the Supreme Court's decision. It's a pdf link. I didn't bother to read it.
I faced a similarly good intentioned but poorly socialized pediatrician. I found and printed some data from (what I think was) the CDC website showing that bath tubs, swimming pools, and even 5 gallon buckets each “caused” more fatalities than firearms in children below a certain age. After showing her I then asked her if she was going to ask all her patients about whether they had bathtubs since they were far more dangerous. She assured me that she wouldn’t be asking anyone those sorts of questions anymore.
Tell your friend that either A. politely tell the Doctor to mind their own business or find a Pediatrician that doesn’t adhere to this questioning.
Or you can interview the doctor before the child is seen.
My kids answered “yes sir, and momma lets us play with them every weekend at the range. :~D
Any time the doctor asks a question that is not specifically related to the medical problem you are there for, I’d respond with a question:
Doctor: “Are there any guns in your home?”
Patient: “Are there any guns in your home, Doctor?”
Doctor: “Does anyone in your home smoke?”
Patient: “Does anyone in your home smoke, Doctor?”
Doctor: “How much alcohol is consumed at your house?”
Patient: “How much alcohol is consumed at your house, Doc?”
After a few of those I bet he realizes how intrusive it is, or just that you’re not the typical dumb sheep, and quits asking.
Doctor: “Are there any guns in your home?”
Patient: “Not at the moment, I got em on me.”
Doctors don’t ask questions like that. These people are technically proficient bureaucrats with medical degrees.
LOL!!!
Those are some beautiful stats man....or ma’am...Thanks.
Later the question about helmet use came up and my son said he used one when he was required by a parent but that it was not the state business to require, but that was the parents perogative. That took the doctor back and we got into the issue of seat belt and she tried to justify the requirement that if we knew the lives saved, etc. I said that I am a claims adjuster and see crashed cars and some with fatalities all the time and I still disagreed with the state law. That this was a personal choice or a parental choice. She was surprised.
When she got in second hand smoke I challenged if she actually read the study or went by the summary which contradicted the study that there was no evidence, too many factors. That shut the doctor up and never again were these intrusive questions asked.
The doctor had some assumptions that all the people agree and I challenged her that risk is a personal or familial choice. That if we allowed the state to ban risk that many sports we enjoy would be banned, like skiiing.
After that they stopped with the indoctrination and did what they need to do, a physical and medical exams.
It's always good to know the "language" of any topic. When you use the language, you're already more respected and taken more seriously.
Thanks for that. I'm going to ask some of my inlaw Dr relatives about that lingo and about the practice of asking children about family lifestyle choices.
My kids doctor puts it very wisely, they ask, “If you have any guns in the house, are they stored properly?” That leaves it up to me to determine what proper storage is.
well since the CDC says gun crime is a “disease”, it’s all making sense to me now.(sarc)
I used to go to a doctor who might have given you a price quote. His gun collection was awesome!
I bought my last pistol from my dentist.
these are the same kook doctors that opposed nuclear arms and a few years ago tried to make gun control a “health care issue.”
Perhaps doctors should focus on medicine and less on politics and they would not be one of the largest professions filing chapter 13 bankruptcies.
I’m really shocked as this happened in a small by and large gun totting town.
My response would be along the lines of “You’re sort of a plumber for the body, a contractor that I’ve hired for specific expertise that I either do not possess or don’t wish to use. Just as I would not answer nor allow my child to answer such irrelevant questions if posed by the that plumber, I won’t answer if you ask.”
Physician Affidavit
http://www.2asisters.org/education/PhysicianAffidavit.pdf
From the Second Amendment Sisters of whom I am a proud member.
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