Florida to Pay Legal Fees in Case That Kept Doctors From Discussing Guns

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Florida to Pay Legal Fees in Case That Kept Doctors From Discussing Guns

By MATTHEW HAAG JULY 24, 2017

Florida has agreed to pay $1.1 million in legal fees to lawyers who sued the state over a 2011 law that barred doctors from talking to patients about gun ownership, according to a gun control organization involved in the case.

The organization, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said Gov. Rick Scott of Florida had approved the reimbursement to lawyers who represented doctors and medical organizations in the case, which came to be known as “Docs v. Glocks.” In February, a federal appeals court overturned the law, siding with medical providers over the state’s powerful gun lobby.

“Florida taxpayers just paid $1.1 million because of the gun industry’s unconstitutional, antitruth agenda designed to increase gun sales at any cost — including children’s lives,” Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Center, said in a statement on Sunday. “Physicians have a critical role to play in preventing these deaths by talking to patients about the true dangers of guns in the home.”

In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Scott called the governor a “strong supporter of the second amendment.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/us/florida-doctors-guns-lawsuit.html

[pablo_marmol]

1. Are doctors required to ask folks if they have a swimming pool?

How about lecturing parents about the possibility of poisoning via household chemicals? Or electrocution from electrical outlets? Or what type of toys the kids play with? If parents are too stupid to keep loaded weapons away from their kids what makes the "health experts" think that they won't fail in other areas? Should we legislate a strict time limit on how long physicians can lecture parents on common sense issues? 5 minutes? 10? 15?

This is just so ridiculously transparent. The medical community has been the most dishonest group w/regard to the gun issue, so it's perfectly understandable that The Controllers continue to attempt to frame gun violence as a health issue.

And of course none of this horseshit has any political consequences.

[SecularMotion]

2. Are doctors banned from asking about swimming pools, dangerous chemicals, or electrical outlets?

They are probably more than a few parents out there who might benefit from a lecture on common sense issues.

[pablo_marmol]

3. Not the point, of course --- but you knew that.

Nobody has argued that legislation needs to be passed to compel doctors to lecture on these other issues. Issues that result in the deaths of many more children.

Like I said.......The Controllers are transparent as hell -- regularly trying to steer the conversation in the direction of medical professionals rather than criminologists. They know perfectly well who their allies are.

[Throck]

5. Prescription medicine abuse

My kids school district has a drug abuse problem from prescribed drugs stolen from their parents medicine cabinet (along with alcohol). Yet in all the trips to the doctors office not one discussion about common sense drug storage and responsibility of parents, adults.

Honestly I don't see it as the doctors problem either. It's an across the board parental supervision problem. Doctors and their medical staff have enough work focusing on actual medical stuff and are not parent trainers.

Common sense seems to have died in modern society. There's warnings out there based upon a lifetime of experience, yet less people are heeding it and taking advantage of it.

[Hangingon]

4. If I refuse to answer can the doctor refuse service?

I believe this happened in some cases.

[spin]

6. I live in Florida and I have often discussed guns with my doctors. ...

We talk about the weapons we own, hunting and going to the range to shoot.

It often helps me avoid getting a finger stuck up my butt to check on my prostate.

One doctor I had in Tampa bitched about all the paperwork he had to fill out in order to check on the lead level in my blood. I used to shoot at an indoor pistol range and the first time I had the check run I was right on the verge of having too high a level. Apparently checking on lead levels leads to questions about where I worked which explained the additional paperwork required.