Physician Education

When was the last time you were asked by your physician if you had guns in your home? It is no secret that many medical and nursing professional organizations espouse anti-gun and anti-self defense agendas. Guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics even encourage doctors to ask your children about guns in their homes.

Today, I learned about Doctors For Sensible Gun Laws. This organization, founded by Dr. William B. Rogers is taking on the professional groups who have sided with the anti-gun lobby. A quote from a letter to the American Psychiatric Association:

"To treat firearms violence as a medical issue in an effort to push for further gun control is absolutely ludicrous, when all the relevant research in the field of criminology reveals a net benefit to society of gun ownership."

Further:

"As physicians, we must be advocates for our patients. Embarrassingly often, we have advocated "treatments" without full knowledge of the facts (therapeutic bloodletting comes to mind). And while lack of research and scientific knowledge might be a partial excuse, that certainly isn't the case with gun-control, where solid research has been done, but organizations like the APA ignore this research because it doesn't fit their preconceived ideas."

The doctors affiliated with Doctors For Sensible Gun Laws also discuss what a patient can do when a nurse or physician pushes his or her own political agenda regarding firearms. Known as boundary violations, these inappropriate questions and inaccurate declarations are highly unprofessional and take advantage of the therapeutic relationship that should exist between nurses, physicians and patients. For many gun owners, the ignorant accusatory condemnations that make up this type of interview destroys trust and fills the relationship with justifiable suspicion and even hostility.

Nurses and physicians need to get out of the gun control business. By allowing gun control advocates to be lead them around by the nose, they lose credibility among the patients they serve. I am blessed to be living in a free state, one that cherishes the second amendment, regardless of what happened in Louisiana's own San Francisco known locally as Nawlins. I know and shoot with many physicians and nurses. The professional organizations that seek to strip us of our rights do not represent them, or myself. Many of us refuse to join, much less pay dues to such a group. That though, will not bring about change. More than enough gun ignorant nurses and physicians are available to keep the funds coming to support those at the top of the bureaucracy of health care.

What will make a difference is educating doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. One by one. It seems a daunting task, but each time a gun owner submits to these types of interviews without effective protest, ground is lost. Print a copy of this form. Hand it to your doctor or nurse when they try to intrude upon your privacy and your constitutional rights. Doctors For Sensible Gun Laws also has a polite letter and an angry letter prepared as templates to mail your physician if such a boundary violation has already occurred. Do not simply avoid your physician or find another physician, educate the one you have. Until we educate health care providers in large numbers, political winds will continue to influence them, and as a result the care we all receive.

First, do no harm. What a concept. Doctors need to stick with it.