Boston Mayor Martin Walsh wants to mandate that doctors teach patients about gun safety. It appears to be another Orwellian definition. Gun safety in these circumstances seems to mean getting rid of guns. There is no mention of using known gun safety experts who have been working on the subject for decades. From bizjournals.com:
Involving doctors in gun safety: This act would require medical professionals to ask patients about guns in the home, and bring up the topics of gun safety. The goal, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said, is to identify those at risk for domestic violence, suicide, or child access to guns in order to guide people to mental health counseling, resources or other help. “We’re just asking them to help identify ways to save lives.”
As proposed, the fact that a patient owns guns would not be put in their medical record, and is not intended to have physicians help solve crimes.
Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez said that while the program is already common practice at many of the city’s community health centers, legislation would broaden the program statewide.
The claim is the ownership of guns will not be put in a patient’s medical records. If not, how will the ownership of guns help to “guide people to mental health counseling, resources, or other help?” Will the information be stored somewhere else? There has been no mention or guarantee that the information will not be collected and stored in a separate database.
This is part of the Progressive push to medicalize all of society. Some of the first big wins of Progressives were to exclude medical issues from most Constitutional protections, in the name of “safety.” The big issue was mandatory vaccinations. Mandatory vaccination arguably violates the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.
That is the model being pushed with guns. However, there are big differences. No one claims smallpox is a Constitutional right. Half, or more, of the population understands that being armed offers many advantages to the person armed. It is why many Americans tenaciously support the Second Amendment.
The tactic used by Progressives to undermine and destroy the Second Amendment is to propagandize the population into believing they are safer when they are disarmed. It is a longtime tactic of those who want the population disarmed. Rudyard Kipling had an answer to this in his poem, Gods of the Copybook Headings:
When the Cambrian measures were forming, they promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed, they sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said, “Stick to the Devil you know.”
Nearly all health journal studies about firearms argue the same basic fallacy: They assume that firearms only have bad effects. They fail to consider positive effects. It is as if they tested a new treatment, and only checked to see if there were bad side effects, and never considered whether the treatment worked.
Most of the health journal studies have this blind spot, because the authors have chosen to be unarmed. They do not wish to learn that being armed has positive effects. To do so would challenge their world view. People become very uncomfortable when their world view is challenged.
There is at least one study about firearms and outcomes, published in a medical journal, that did not assume firearms always resulted in bad effects. Its finding was the increases in the legal carry of firearms had no negative effect on homicides or violent crime.
Conclusion
Requiring doctors to ask patients about gun ownership stigmatizes gun ownership. It is a way of chilling the exercise of Second Amendment rights. Mayor Walsh is not part of the Massachusetts legislature, but he has a large influence in state politics. Massachusetts is one of the least Second Amendment-friendly states in the Union.
Will the legislature require doctors to ask about gun ownership in Massachusetts? They may. It diverts attention away from the high homicide rate in Boston.
Do you think doctors should question patients about gun ownership? Do you agree with the author that the proposed law would stigmatize gun ownership? Share your answers in the comment section.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten
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You guys got bad doctors up there or what? Tell him hell yes I have a gun, I want to see it tell him hell yes I have a gun, want to see it?
Typical ‘Libtard’ b.s. from Taxachusetts…
This was being pushed as part of Obama sCARE. If asked by my doctor, I would say none of your business. If he didn’t like that, I would find another doctor. Most doctors only see the gun shot victim side of an incident. Both my daughter and daughter in law are surgeons and have been E.R. doctors. They are very anti-gun. They don’t see the mother who defended her and her daughters from a robber or rapist. And they don’t have time to dig into the back story of a shooting. They think that they are doing good by supporting gun control and are easily co-oped into helping.
What is this Mayor’s insanity?
Liberalism!
This mayor is not the question,, it’s what appears to be demo liberals taking over, I thought when Obama left this would cool down, conservatives need to get out and raise as much hell as these crazy in the head libs, I live in Texas, during the past election some idiot next to our county court house but huge BETO signs on his homes fence, the signs are still there, some of us have complained to the city last week , well see if they are removed, anyway, this kind of crazy is all around us everywhere even here in Texas, we need to get off our butts and start being a little louder or were going to get taken over, thanks for your comment
I believe most doctors will chafe at this. Secondly, the people they ask will be angry with them for asking and many will lie or refuse to acknowledge the question. This is government over reach!
Libturdism at its finest. Any gun owner who answers that question is stupid is as stupid does.
I might buy into this alittle more, IF the doctor evaluates that a patient has mental problems or is prescribing psych. Meds. But other than that.. it’s non of a doctor’s business who owns a gun. I’d like to believe that doctors are smart enough to ask why a person was shot or what the situation was, NOT just treat the wounded “victim” and think..poor guy. It’s not a guns fault for shooting something, it takes a reason to pull a trigger! (GOOD or bad!)
Thanks to Obama Care Doctors are required to put all of your very personal and private health information on Government websites where millions of government workers and private contractors can read all about your private issues. If you tell a Doctor you have guns in your home he or she is required to put that is your permanent government record. If asked about guns just smile and don’t answer the question.
What they are wanting is to see how many weapons are out there when the coming war to take America back will threaten their socialist agenda…my doc asked that once and I told him it was none of his business…
First question should be does the Dr. have any malpractice suits pending. Second is does the Dr. have any which were litigated and what were the results. The question about firearms already was put to bed. Unless the Dr. can professionally evaluwaite the question in all respects, it does no good to have it on the form.
Doctors have no special training on gun safety.
When this topic came up on medscape, what to do when a patient asks about guns?
The consensus was to refer them to an NRA certified gun instructor.