Children, Guns & Physician's Rights

[Jazzy]

Pediatricians regularly give parents advice about how to keep their children safe at home: Stash toxic cleaners where young children cannot get to them, fence the backyard swimming pool, require bike helmets, and keep any firearms unloaded and locked away.

Physicians call this kind of preventive care "“anticipatory guidance". When it comes to guns, the National Rifle Association calls it an invasion of privacy.“ For a doctor to be able to do his or her job, they don't need to know whether a person owns a firearm or not, said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.

Florida was the first state to limit a physician's ability to ask patients or their parents whether they own a gun. Those who do would be subject to discipline by the state medical board. Similar proposals now being considered by several other states have enraged many doctors who say the law impinges on their ability to deliver critical information to families.

Debate:
Physicians say firearms safety is a matter of public health; the NRA says it's an invasion of privacy.
Who do you agree with and why?

 

[DrLeftover]

Are they also going to ask if you have any power tools?

Do you lock up your kitchen knives?

Do you use extension cords?

Is your bookcase strapped to the wall?

 

[Jazzy]

I agree with the NRA that it's an invasion of privacy. Whether or not I own a firearm is no ones business but mine. Since when are doctors trained in firearm safety and what does owning a firearm have anything to do with Public Health?

 

[Sinon]

The amount of children wounded or killed by misplaced firearms and failures in firearm safety would be a concern, I'd say. If an injury or death can be prevented simply by knowing someone owns a gun and therefore giving them information on safety, more power to 'em.

This is exactly why pro-gun people have a bad reputation; the doctors aren't even hinting at gun legislation, and yet the NRA is taking up their usual U AINT TAKIN MAH GUNZ stance.

It's a safety precaution. Bike helmets? Prevent your kid breaking their face open if they fall off. Fence around the pool? Stop them getting in unattended and drowning. Lock cleaners away? Stops kids drinking them because children love putting random shit in their mouths.

The .45-caliber pistol that killed Lucas Heagren, 3, on Memorial Day last year at his Ohio home had been temporarily hidden under the couch by his father. But Lucas found it and shot himself through the right eye.

In Bexar County, Tex., for example, the medical examiner’s office issued a finding of homicide in the death of William Reddick, a 9-month-old who was accidentally killed on May 17, 1999, when his 2-year-old brother opened a dresser drawer while in the crib with him, grabbed a pistol and pulled the trigger.

And more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?_r=0

They were all preventable if the parents had just taken better precautions with the storage and safety of their weapons. Why is the NRA against that? Why would they rather protect parents whose stupidity caused the loss of life of innocent children, over the lives of the children themselves?

 

[DrLeftover]

You don't see a political agenda behind either that or school districts sending home questionnaires asking the same questions?

 

[Sinon]

Of course there's an agenda; almost everything has one hidden in its depths nowadays. But it doesn't detract from the fact that it's a good idea as is. As showcased in that news link, some parents don't understand basic gun safety, and possibly, being informed of it would have spared them the pain of burying their children.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Pediatricians regularly give parents advice about how to keep their children safe at home: Stash toxic cleaners where young children cannot get to them, fence the backyard swimming pool, require bike helmets, and keep any firearms unloaded and locked away.

Physicians call this kind of preventive care "“anticipatory guidance". When it comes to guns, the National Rifle Association calls it an invasion of privacy.“ For a doctor to be able to do his or her job, they don't need to know whether a person owns a firearm or not, said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.

Florida was the first state to limit a physician's ability to ask patients or their parents whether they own a gun. Those who do would be subject to discipline by the state medical board. Similar proposals now being considered by several other states have enraged many doctors who say the law impinges on their ability to deliver critical information to families.

Debate:
Physicians say firearms safety is a matter of public health; the NRA says it's an invasion of privacy.
Who do you agree with and why?

I go nuts every time I read or hear someone say keep a gun unloaded.

I live in Florida and I could not be happier Florida did this. And anyways my doctor who goes off on a fantastic rant against obama and obama care every time I see him was not going to comply with asking the question.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

The amount of children wounded or killed by misplaced firearms and failures in firearm safety would be a concern, I'd say. If an injury or death can be prevented simply by knowing someone owns a gun and therefore giving them information on safety, more power to 'em.

This is exactly why pro-gun people have a bad reputation; the doctors aren't even hinting at gun legislation, and yet the NRA is taking up their usual U AINT TAKIN MAH GUNZ stance.

It's a safety precaution. Bike helmets? Prevent your kid breaking their face open if they fall off. Fence around the pool? Stop them getting in unattended and drowning. Lock cleaners away? Stops kids drinking them because children love putting random shit in their mouths.

The .45-caliber pistol that killed Lucas Heagren, 3, on Memorial Day last year at his Ohio home had been temporarily hidden under the couch by his father. But Lucas found it and shot himself through the right eye.

In Bexar County, Tex., for example, the medical examiner’s office issued a finding of homicide in the death of William Reddick, a 9-month-old who was accidentally killed on May 17, 1999, when his 2-year-old brother opened a dresser drawer while in the crib with him, grabbed a pistol and pulled the trigger.

And more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?_r=0

They were all preventable if the parents had just taken better precautions with the storage and safety of their weapons. Why is the NRA against that? Why would they rather protect parents whose stupidity caused the loss of life of innocent children, over the lives of the children themselves?

They could just give the gun safety information to everyone without knowing if they have a gun or not. But they wont do that because having the doctor know if families are armed or not is the first step to start picking who should have there weapons taken away through the doctors information. If this was really about caring about the "children" they would have brought in the NRA for advice on how to get gun safety out to the patients and still keep there privacy intact.

And by the way bike helmets are part of a growing list turning these current generation of kids into wimps.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

How interesting obama picks a unqualified communist to be surgeon general who happens to be against all guns.










Second Amendment advocates are worried about President Barack Obama’s nominee for surgeon general, a political ally of the president and strong proponent of gun restrictions.
Obamas Surgeon General Pick Has an Interesting Take on…Gun Control

Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next U.S. surgeon general, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP/Charles Dharapak

Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy is the president and founder of Doctors for America, which grew from the campaign organization that was called Doctors for Obama, started in 2008. The organization has advocated for a number of liberal initiatives, including strongly supporting the passage of Obamacare and Medicaid expansion.

The group has also been supportive of the Obama administration’s failed push for expanding gun control laws in 2013. It successfully fought a proposed Florida law that would have prevented doctors from including in a person’s medical file whether they are a gun owner. Doctors for America has referred to guns as a public health threat, and circulated a petition to pressure Congress to pass stricter gun laws.

READ THE REST HERE
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/10/obamas-surgeon-general-pick-has-an-interesting-take-ongun-control/