Posted on 07/30/2014 12:46:11 PM PDT by Q-ManRN
As a pediatrician, I have one, straightforward professional obligation: to safeguard and support the health and wellbeing of my patients. In my case, those patients are children, but you could change the age range of the people coming into the office and apply that statement to any medical provider.
Asking about guns in the house is no exception. When I ask parents if there are firearms in the home, and if so how they are secured, it is for the sole purpose of keeping their children safe.
Physicians in Florida are being threatened with a law that, if enacted, will seriously hamper their ability to do their jobs. The Firearms Owners' Privacy Act, passed in 2011, would subject medical providers to fines and a potential loss of licensure for asking patients about gun ownership or recording that information in the medical record if it is not “relevant to the patient's medical care or safety.”
Gun advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association have long opposed the AAP’s efforts to strengthen gun laws. But the Florida law has no effect on gun ownership or access. Its insidious reach enters into medical offices and chokes off the free-speech rights of the people trying to work there.
As much as the NRA and its ilk want to deny it, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death. Acknowledging that fact is not the same thing as taking the gun away. The Florida law seeks to “protect” gun owners from even having to be informed about truths they’d prefer to ignore, and seeks to cast medical providers in an unflattering light for having the temerity to question them.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
“Gee, doc, I’d hate to hurt your feelings by telling you what I think about you for asking that question, so let’s just pretend you didn’t.”
So ... do you ask about bleach, motor oil, radiator coolant, windex, buy spray, transmission fluid, etc? Hmmm do you?
Or having electricity in the home of a bathtub or good lord knows what ever your fear du jour is
The doctor may ask the question and the patient may refuse to answer...Free speech works TWO ways....
Children that I am financially and legally responsible for have no privacy.
Illegal aliens won’t be asked question about their legal status, so they can be free to report crime.
Gun owners will not be free from being questioned about their gun ownership, so they can be free to seek health care.
Equal rights! LOL
Not the Doctor's job. That's the job of parents. An MD provides medical assistance. His claims are ridiculous on their face.
What to advise children about gun questions from physicians or at schools is not an easy thing. It’s not good to teach them to lie, and if they say it’s none of your business, they are being disrespectful towards adults.
Perhaps the best thing for a child to say is, “That’s none of my business.”
This response is neither lying nor disrespectful. It is, in fact, entirely true, because it is not the children’s business to be caught between their parents and government busybodies.
It it also a lesson to the questioners, because it’s none of their business, either.
With the advent of the electronic medical record, never tell your doctor anything you do not want the government to know. All the hospital and doctors offices medical records will connected to a data base that will be opened by any government entity for “national security” reasons. The government has destroyed doctor patient confidentiality.
Just tell them, “Why don’t you break in tonight and see.”
We set up a NFA gun trust and put all Title I and Title II firearms in Appendix A and B.
This is a legal entity that "holds" the firearms as property and assets.
If ever a Doc is dumb enough to ask us about firearms, we can honestly and ethically say "We do not personnally own any firearms".
If they probe any further, stop them with this question: "What is the name, address, and phone number of your malpractice insurance"?
Insist on getting the information for the purposes of inquiring about their firearm profeciency, NRA training, CCW training, police or military service.
If they cannot produce those credentials, then they may be giving professional advice outside of their licensed expertise.
Doctors can lose their licenses for that. All doctors fear an inquiry from their medical malpractice or state medical board.
Stick to your guns, be polite, and try to deflect the question from ever entering the conversation.
FACTS TO PONDER :
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are120,000.
(Calculation) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now think about this:
Guns:
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(Yes, that’s 80 million..)
(B) The number of accidental gun death per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(Calculation) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.
Statistics courtesy of FBI
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Remember, ‘Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.’
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.
From: Truth or fiction.com
As my children age in the this time of jerks among us I teach my kids the correct amount of disrespect to give to an adult that garnishes it. Respect is earned, not awarded.
I’m not sure if people realize this, but at least some information you give your doctor goes into a big database.
There’s an insurance exchange, where any disease you have is reported so that insurers can tap into it and realize if you are a risk or not.
If physicians are contributing to this database, what’s to say they don’t report out gun ownership also.
When asked, I simply say no. I don’t own guns.
Don’t think a casual relationship with your physician will protect you. If a spouse can turn on you, is it out of the question for a physician to turn on you?
Keep your wits about you.
And the patient has the right to refuse to answer.
That said, I talk about guns with my Doc all the time, mostly because one or the other of us will have bought a new one between visits.
I still believe in children speaking respectfully to adults. That doesn’t mean they have to obey every adult, just keep their mouths under control.
Since many more people killed by vehicles every year than by guns, it stands to reason that doctors would be better advised to ask about vehicles ownership and if everyone is properly trained in vehicle saftey.
Ask him immediately if he's a homosexual pedophile. That should shut him up. If he asks again, attack again.
Never play their games. Always hit them back twice as hard as they hit you.
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