Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Should Doctors Ask About Your Guns?

No

posted by Winston Smith at 4:04 PM

2 Comments:

Anonymous Jim Bales said...

WS,

For the other view, you might check out Richard Mayhew's piece at Balloon Juice.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/07/29/docs-guns-and-population-health-payments/

(I urge everyone to follow Mayhew, as he gives the insurance company's view of implementing Obamacare -- a very valuable perspective)

As for a pediatrician asking if we have a gun in the house, it strikes me the same as a pediatrician asking how we store caustic cleaning agents. The presence of either in a household places children at risk, and it is incumbent upon parents to store either safely.

Best
Jim

4:38 PM  
Blogger Dark Avenger said...

You have to ask what social good is served here when a doctor can already ask after your eating habits, what drugs you're using, your sexual life, in the interests of your health, etc, but this is where you draw the line.

It is a fact that in this country we have a high rate of gun injuries/deaths due to inappropriately stored guns, so it is a problem. Unfortunately, Congress in their infinite wisdom has disallowed any funding of studying this phenomenon with a ultimate goal of reducing it by public health researchers, as if the inevitable conclusion would be that reducing gun violence necessitates going against the 2nd Amendment. It's not a logical argument, but there it is.

This kind of law is the equivalent of creams designed to hide what are called by the layman age spots: They seem to make the problem better(or not worse) but the underlying cause of the problem isn't addressed at all.

8:26 PM  

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