Why doctors should not ask their patients about guns
First, the American Academy of Pediatrics is not politically neutral in the gun debate. The AAP supports standard Left positions, including “federal firearms legislation that bans assault weapon sales and the sales of high capacity magazines” and “the strongest possible regulations of handguns for civilian use.” The AAP also recommends that parents “NEVER have a gun in the home” (“NEVER” capitalized in their statement). Their website also cites the now-discredited 1986 claim that, “A gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill someone known to the family than to kill someone in self-defense.”
However, numerous scholars have noted that most of those unfortunate deaths were suicides that would have likely still occurred even if no gun had been available. David Kopel of the Independence Institute observed that after excluding such suicides, the ratio was closer to 2-to-1. Furthermore, comparing numbers of accidental or unlawful deaths to justified deaths of criminals is misleading, because it fails to include many nonlethal self-defense uses of firearms. Depending on the source, there are 800,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year where law-abiding gun owners deter criminals without firing a shot (let alone killing the bad guy).
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And anyone who does have a gun at home is likely just going to lie to the doctor since its none of their business…
Ace ODale on January 22, 2013 at 7:04 PM
Because the answer will always be no?
Bmore on January 22, 2013 at 7:05 PM
The main reason why is “nunya.”
viking01 on January 22, 2013 at 7:07 PM
Because guns have nothing to do with health. Doctors are not life coaches whose job is to direct every action of their patients. Doctors are service for fee providers and nothing else. They get paid to do a simple job, not direct lives.
Everything “affects” a person’s health in the same tortured way that these leftist tools claim that guns do, so by their standards doctors would be asking about every single thing on Earth. That is insane, of course, and anyone who makes the argument that guns are a “health issue” is too friggin dumb and dishonest for words.
Doctors are simple service providers, not directors of life. They need to get over themselves and the leftists who are constantly looking to control every aspect of people’s lives need to just STFU and FOAD, already. The idea that guns are a “health” issue is a friggin joke of monumental proportions.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on January 22, 2013 at 7:08 PM
Because it’s none of their business?
ButterflyDragon on January 22, 2013 at 7:09 PM
My doctor carries a Colt Defender .45ACP, so no problem.
meci on January 22, 2013 at 7:11 PM
My thought exactly. Whether I do or I don’t, the answer to the question is going to be the same.
Marxism is for dummies on January 22, 2013 at 7:11 PM
Go ahead. Make my day, Doc. As a Cop I think I may have a few questions of my own. Like, do you have any medications at your home that do not have proper prescriptions? Can I come in and see?
MikeA on January 22, 2013 at 7:12 PM
If my doctor asks me anything about guns or anything else political… after telling him it’s none of his business… I will be asking him “What did you do last night? How many malpractices lawsuits are you currently in? How often do you drink? Have you ever drank on the job? Have you ever been tempted to take narcotics? To write yourself a prescription? Are you seeing a psychiatrist? Are you paying your taxes? Have you cheated on your wife? Do you watch porn? Do you like giving physicals to members of the opposite sex? ”
I think we have a lot more reasons to be asking our doctors some serious questions than they do us!
JellyToast on January 22, 2013 at 7:12 PM
ButterflyDragon, I agree except the question mark is not needed.
davidk on January 22, 2013 at 7:14 PM
Thank you two for that. If my doctor asks me that, instead of answering his/her question, I will start asking the questions you have suggested.
davidk on January 22, 2013 at 7:16 PM
Hey Doc. Explain to me just one more time – how having or not having a gun – affects my prostate health.
Hill60 on January 22, 2013 at 7:18 PM
Because it won’t be too long before all their patients are liberal leftards who can’t pay their bills.
Oldnuke on January 22, 2013 at 7:23 PM
Doctor: Sir, do you have any guns or assault weapons at home?
Me: Doc, that is none of your busi……mooooooooon riiiverrrr! You using both hands doc?
Ditkaca on January 22, 2013 at 7:25 PM
I actually had to see my doc for something last Friday. Saw the doctor’s assistant instead. Nurse extender, whatever her title is. I was fully prepared to respond to that question but it was never asked.
I reject the whole freaking premise. We do not owe our doctors a freaking thing except payment for services rendered. We are not their property. They, though, took an oath to serve us. Not an oath to act like the secret police. Screw them!
Let them cross that line and I will have a hundred questions in response! What’s their party affiliation? Who do they contribute to? Do they get off on checking over little girls?
We are the ones who should be asking the questions about their character! About what they do in the spare time!
We don’t owe them a freaking thing!
JellyToast on January 22, 2013 at 7:28 PM
How many people in America die from guns each year?
How many people in America die from misdiagnosis, prescribing a wring medication, outright malpractice, and incompetence on the part of Doctors?
I’m pretty sure the medical profession does not want to have this fight.
MikeA on January 22, 2013 at 7:46 PM
My late father was a doctor and a pioneer surgeon in his specialty who besides the routine patient history form inquiry form on smoking and drinking left that alone unless the patient presented a resultant or associated medical problem.
I remember him telling me about an unnamed patient well into his or her 80s who asked him if he / she should quit smoking. He mentioned how he certainly didn’t emphasize their quitting mindful that at that elderly point in life smoking could be one of their few pleasures and that the nicotine just might be what’s keeping the old ticker going.
viking01 on January 22, 2013 at 7:54 PM
If I thought my doctor would report me to the government for any non-criminal intent , I would walk out of his office, since lying is not a sensible option in an ostensibly therapeutic relationship. Codes of ethics don’t typically legitimize such denunciations anyway. But , sure, I would tell someone I trusted whatever they thought they actually needed to know.
Seth Halpern on January 22, 2013 at 7:58 PM
On the bright side, the Doc that I go to occasionally, if he asked, it would be to find out if I have an extra one he could buy or barter services for.
LegendHasIt on January 22, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Just a year or so ago I had a sort of funny reaction from my Dr. at a routine check-up. Same thing twice a year. The Dr. did the normal things of looking in the ears, down the throat and listening to the heart and breathing. For some reason she decided to check my ankles and just reached down and took my ankle and reached under the cuff of my pants to discover the little Ruger LCP .380 that resides there about 100% of the time. She was a little shocked and then remembered that I’m a Cop and sort of laughed and said we didn’t need to finish that part of the exam. Never said another word about it since. Had I not been a Cop, who knows how that might have turned out.
MikeA on January 22, 2013 at 8:09 PM
I should add that I bet violent ideation in the general public spikes every time there is some kind of murderous incident. People are really quite impressionable.
Seth Halpern on January 22, 2013 at 8:13 PM
If my doctor asked me anything about guns it would be time to find a new doctor.
visions on January 22, 2013 at 8:22 PM
whatever he thought, &c. (Obsessive-compulsive grammarian alert.)
Seth Halpern on January 22, 2013 at 8:25 PM
Most likely checking for a growth, edema or malformation. A good doctor always looks for symptoms a patient may be shy or embarrassed to mention.
viking01 on January 22, 2013 at 8:36 PM
Forget about wrongly prescribed medicine:
davidk on January 22, 2013 at 8:44 PM
davidk on January 22, 2013 at 8:48 PM
davidk on January 22, 2013 at 8:53 PM
Thanks to the ambulance chaser for stopping by….
viking01 on January 22, 2013 at 8:56 PM
First it starts out “the law doesn’t say you can’t ask about it.” That turns to “but you know, it’s not a bad thing to ask about.” Which quickly becomes “you really need to ask about it.” Obviously leading up to “if you don’t ask about it, you won’t get paid for the visit.”
I couldn’t possibly care less if you are the legal owner of a gun as it has nothing to do with healthcare nor is it my business anymore than asking you if you collect toy trains. As it is, I’m struggling to try and get all the important questions in since I have to see so many patients in a day while not letting anyone feel like they’re getting “the bum’s rush,” or overlooking something important with the limited time I have per patient.
Virtually every stupid or unnecessary question you’ve ever been asked by a doctor is because of regulation that demands it with a penalty of refusal of payment from either the insurance company or the government (or if the question isn’t asked and it somehow became important fear of lawsuit) if the question goes unasked.
And don’t forget that agencies like the AMA and AAP are just as political as the AARP or NRA for that matter, and that the average doctor really just wants to know how you’re doing, feeling and if there’s a problem the best way we can help.
When we’re not harvesting tonsils and cutting off diabetic’s feet, anyway.
DrAllecon on January 22, 2013 at 9:18 PM