Daily Discussion 2/19
“Doctors can advise patients to put covers on electrical outlets, keep poisons locked up and a host of other measures to protect children. Yet, they aren’t supposed to mention gun safety. Put a cord, drano, a pill bottle & a gun in their reach and see which is more fatal. I just spoke to a group of UF / Shands / Wolfsons pediatricians about the ambiguous state of these laws.” – John M. Phillips
Agree? Disagree? Comment below.
4 Comments
Post a comment
I think the commenters here are missing the point. There are more regulations and advice given to people, and more specifically parents, on how to prevent injuries from chemicals, medicine etc. People trust their doctors. While not every doctor is qualified, or has the experience to know how to advise patients on how to be a responsible gun owner, doctors should be allowed to explain to their patients proper ways to store and own guns if they have children in the same house as a weapon. Doctors should NOT be permitted to tell patients how dangerous weapons are, or if they should or should not have a gun, but if the patient does have a gun – how to store it in a family home properly and safely.
ALSO, Patrick, how can you say that most home owners practice safe gun storage? A lot of people keep guns in their dresser drawer, for quick access in the event of a home defense situation. The only thing separating a kid from a loaded gun, in some situations, is a safety switch that requires little effort to switch, unlike the top of a medicine bottle. I don’t know, just a thought.
Doctors advise parents on the dangers of pills, Drano and the like because they’re common household items that can mistakenly be left within the reach of small children. Despite some anomalies, that’s not true about guns. Most gun owners in this nation are adept in gun safety and wouldn’t make the mistake of leaving a loaded gun laying around their home. Also, the onus is not on doctors but gun advocacy groups to extol the virtues of gun safety.
I don’t think it’s a doctor’s place to tell someone about gun safety, because I think that it’s really none of the doctor’s business to know if a patient owns a gun or not. Furthermore, there is no requirement that the doctor advising about gun safety is a gun user himself/herself, or even knows how to operate a gun. If that’s the case, it would be the equivalent of the patient giving the doctor medical advice. It’s far more appropriate for a doctor to give advise about things like chemicals and electrical outlets, because those are things that are in nearly every house in the country. But guns are a hotly debated issue in the US, and there’s always a chance that the doctor’s personal beliefs about guns could influence his/her advice.
Anybody that needs information from a Doctor on gun safety should not be able to own a gun. I do not think it’s the Doctor’s duty to advise their patients about gun safety. What does a Doctor know about gun safety? When a gun is bought it should be the duty of the seller to provide information on gun safety.