Florida bill would make it illegal for pediatricians to question parents about guns in home. The Link Marion Hammer - NRA lobbyist explains -
This has been an ongoing issue with the NRA for a number of years. A flat prohibition is unwise in situations where it is directly relevant to the patient's treatment (suicide, physical abuse, etc.), but I am aware of at least anecdotal tales of MD's reporting parents to CPS for child endangerment simply because a firearm is in the house - how true that is, I can only speculate.
is the information going to be noted on a medical file/record? you could always say that is none of your business to the MD. talking about safety locks on cabinets/stair gates and car seat safety would be the priority I would think. what if they asked if there was porn in the house, booze, medications, cigarettes etc?
If a child is being neglected, by law physicians have to report the neglect to CPS. The question becomes, in the eyes of the physician, what is neglect? If a kid never brushes his teeth and at 11yr. old has multiple hopeless teeth, is that neglect? Beatings are obvious, it is the other stuff like I described that causes uncertainty for physicians.
I've known a lot of people who keep loaded guns in their nightstands. I know one who buried a beautiful 7 year-old redhead shot by her five year old brother. And I know another where the husband killed the wife in a jealous rage -- he never would have done it if he had taken time to think.. I don't know of any who thwarted a robbery or rape. I think it should be OK for a physician to give counseling on firearms safety, dog safety etc. to new parents but I don't think it appropriate that they should report parents with firearms to government authorities. If all gun owners were as responsible as most NRA members I know, the physician counseling wouldn't be an issue. Sometimes ignorant, stupic or incautious people own fiirearms. In short, counseling is OK, narcing on gun owners by peditricians, not so much.
My 12 year old daughter told her pediatrician it was none of her business. If you do not like your doctor, change. Leave the government out of it.
"Narcing on gun owners?" CPS reports? Cite the specific cases. Otherwise I'm going to keep on thinking that this is manufactured outrage by an organization that profits greatly from its members' paranoia ("They're coming to take your guns!"). I personally know a LOT of pediatricians (some are gun owners, btw), and to a person, they are more concerned with children's health than with advancing an ideologic agenda by serving as undercover agents for a totalitarian government. For the NRA to portray them as such in order to inflame their members is ******* shameful.
I'm not in medicine to be your frickin nanny or grandmother. Why don't I ask how fast you drive with kids in the car or a million bajillion other things that are going to get your kid killed? I will counsel on things that are important to keep in mind (car seats, smoke detectors, bike and pool safety, irresponsible access to firearms) but it's not my job to start an inquisition on whether you are wrapping your kid in bubble wrap.
Childproof cabinets, fences around pools, trigger locks for guns... Can't you put all that in a brochure or on a DVD? I would think most physicians wouldn't want to spend time covering all the bases related to child safety with every new parent by initiating a question and answer session.
The reason members of the American Academy of Pediatrics raise the question is to encourage parents to get rid of any handguns. Comment found elsewhere on the Web:
The National Rifle Association lobbies for the right to bear arms. The American Academy of Pediatrics lobbies for gun control. That's a bit like the National Rifle Association wading in on the issue of vaccinating children.
zzzz, I know several pediatricians who own handguns. At least 2 of them have their CHL, and are staunch advocates for gun owners (conservative Christian right-wing Republican straight white American males, as the Todd Snider song goes). If you had a 6-year old child and those guys were to ask you if you had a fence around your swimming pool or unsecured handguns in your home, I can assure you that they're not advancing some left-wing agenda.
Why would it be OK to ask them about having guns, but not about their immigration status? Neither have anything to do with health, which is what ask a doctor to take care of.
Im wondering what some of you that think physicians should be in the business of being nanny/narc/propagandist think of the trend of states passing laws requiring patients to get ultrasounds complete w/ detailed descriptions of the fetal development before they are allowed to get an abortion. I remember a thread on abortion ultrasounds, maybe a couple of years ago rife w/howlings of the west mall left about how doctors should not be forced to go to bat for proponents on any side of a contentious political issue. I would love to see who's fingerprints are on that thread, but the HF search function is not working for me now. Proudly, my straw poll tells me the most reasonable people in this forum think that doctors should be spared from having to carry water for anyone under the guise of public safety. Sadly, some people on this particular thread are too radical abortion rights and radical anti gun rights to see why politicizing the medical profession is a pandora's box.
I think Horn89 nailed it. A lot of people make a lot of money fighting gun control and if they can't keep manufacturing boogeymen, a lot less money will roll their way.
