A Crime For Doctors to Ask About Guns?

[RamboLiberal]

In Florida, where a 5-year-old has just been suspended after bringing a loaded .22-caliber pistol to preschool, a local politician has proposed a bill that would ban doctors from asking parents about guns at home.

"The intention of the bill is to prevent the violation of an individual's right to privacy," State Rep. Jason Brodeur said in a statement to ABC News. "The bill addresses a violation of privacy rights concerning firearms and seeks to prevent future occurrences of such violations."

Under the proposed legislation -- currently under review by the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Florida House of Representatives -- a doctor could face a hefty fine or even jail time for asking a patient or a patient's family about guns in their home.

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Gunshot wounds account for one in 25 admissions to pediatric trauma centers in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Parents are often not aware that unsafe storage of guns has caused many child injuries and deaths," said Dr. Neal Kaufman, professor of pediatrics and public health at the University of California, Los Angeles Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Pediatricians have a responsibility to identify possible threats to a child's safety and highlight ways parents can lessen those risks, Kaufman said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_ParentingResource/pediatricians-parents-guns-home/story?id=12770294

[northoftheborder]

1. put this bill proposal in the hysterical column

[rfranklin]

2. Privasy for guns, but not for pregnant women...

You got to love the Freeper mindset.

[texshelters]

3. Well put, Ditto Thanks

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[lawodevolution]

4. but no one is trying to ban pregnancy

[rfranklin]

8. That's a brilliant reply...

devastating intelligence.

[Euromutt]

13. Oh come on, LOD, you can do better than that

Let's not pretend there isn't a concerted movement out there to ban abortion, not to mention countless people who whinge about how the SCOTUS was "legislating from the bench" by asserting the existence of a "right to privacy" in Roe v. Wade.

[Callisto32]

14. Why not privacy for both?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. Just lie to the doctor. Owning a gun has NO impact on his diagnosis. Doesn't matter how you answer.

[Scout]

6. that's the ticket! just lie ... but then you won't be a "law-abiding" gun owner

anymore, will you?

silly gun owners :rofl:

[petronius]

7. It's not a crime to lie to your own doctor

Or am I missing a joke? :shrug:

[guitar man]

9. Just tell the doc

It's none of his damn business. Simple enough.

[lawodevolution]

10. I find it interesting that the gun control supporters think it's ok for a doctor to violate his oath

And refuse to treat a patient on the sole basis of political values. Doctors know that patients lie to them all day and flat out refuse to answer some questions. The firearms question on the pediatric eval is not very important and most doctors don't even ask it and when they do ask it most patients lie and say there is no gun in the house. Based on this blatant violation of the justice principle in medicine and violation of civil rights this doctor should lose his license.

I would simply modify my tactic to assuming the parents have guns and giving them some info on gun safes and how they are not only good for keeping guns out of little hands but also dangerous chemicals and medications.

[shadowrider]

11. And if the doc has an anti-gun agenda, based on the answers given,

The patient might get a knock on the door from the "authorities".

[Euromutt]

12. As far as I'm concerned, doctors can ask; whether they'll get an answer is a different matter

As has been rightly noted already, there's a measure of hypocrisy in this issue, on both sides. I don't recall any doctor--including my kid's pediatrician--asking me whether I store the keys to the car securely, or whether I obey all traffic rules, even though once's chances of being injured in a motor vehicle collision are significantly higher than those of incurring a gunshot wound. On the other hand, it's remarkable to see a Republican asserting that there is "an individual's right to privacy" after all the bitching about the SCOTUS was "legislating from the bench" in Roe v. Wade by acknowledging that exact same right.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is definitely peddling some horseshit, though.

Gunshot wounds account for one in 25 admissions to pediatric trauma centers in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. (link: http://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/all-around/Pages/Handguns-in-the-Home.aspx )

"One in 25" sounds more dramatic than "4%" doesn't it? Either way, it's meaningless without telling us how many patients are admitted specifically to pediatric trauma centers (as opposed to regular ERs and non-pediatric trauma centers), and whether there are particular kinds of trauma for which a child is more likely to be transferred to specifically a pediatric trauma center.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a gun in the home is 43 times more likely to be used to kill a friend or family member than a burglar or other criminal. The best way to avoid firearm injuries and deaths is not to own a gun.

Still using Kellermann's 1986 exercise in junk science?

An estimated 41 percent of gun-related homicides and 94 percent of gun-related suicides would not occur without access to guns, according to a 2002 study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. (link http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644%2803%2900256-7/abstract )

Yeah, look at how much lower suicide rates in western Europe and Japan are! Oh, wait...
It's not actually what the study says, by the way. The study says firearms ownership is a "risk factor," which is one of those weasel phrases (along with "linked to" and "associated with") that medical and public health researchers use to mean "correlation with no evidence of causation, but we'd like you to think there is." It also says that "additional studies are warranted" on this issue, which is standard, because medical/public health researchers only ever do retrospective studies of firearms-related topics, and never try to confirm the results with prospective studies for some odd reason. Probably because the correlations they've managed to extract by fudging the numbers until they supported the authors' predetermined conclusion adjusting for other factors would evaporate.

[Callisto32]

15. I am very glad you addressed that "1 in 25" bit.

I was wondering exactly the same thing.

I also wonder how old people are being admitted to "pediatric trauma centers." I suspect (with zero evidence, admittedly) that this includes the same kind of "children" cited by the Brady Bunch that includes 16-19 year old gang members shooting each other over piss-ant, "I get respect by being a terrible-fucking-human-being" wars.

[Callisto32]

16. I don't think it should be a crime.

The Doc can ask, I don't have to answer.

Easy.