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Pediatricians Back Away From Evers’ Gun Bill
April 13, 2011
Pediatricians distanced themselves Tuesday from a deal struck between gun-rights advocates and the Florida Medical Association, re-energizing a debate about when physicians should ask patients about gun ownership. .
The debate revolves around a pair of bills, including a Senate bill sponsored by Greg Evers, that would limit when a doctor can ask patients whether they have a gun at home.
The Florida Medical Association at first balked at a stronger version of the Senate bill, which was eventually watered down to allow physicians to ask about guns when they think the question is relevant to a patient’s health care. That essentially ended the association’s opposition to the bill, allowing it to move.
But pediatricians appeared before the House and Senate Judiciary committees – which both approved their respective versions of the measure Tuesday – to say they were not part of the agreement. They said it was still important for doctors to have the ability to ask about guns in the home, without potential second-guessing about whether the question was relevant. .
“This bill will still have a chilling effect and will prevent pediatricians from asking questions about firearms,” said Louis St. Petery of the Florida Pediatric Society. But gun-rights advocates, who have pushed the bill as one of their top priorities this session, said the measure was an attempt to counter the “growing anti-gun political agenda being carried out in examination rooms,” in the words of Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
“We take our children to pediatricians for medical care, not moral judgment or privacy invasion,” Hammer said. The House bill was approved on a 15-3 vote; the Senate margin was 5-2.
Comments
16 Responses to “Pediatricians Back Away From Evers’ Gun Bill”
REGARDING:
“Lets see a doctor can ask you if there is a gun in your home, But you cannot ask him if he has AIDS”
No law forbidding you asking is constitutional.
No law forbidding the doctor asking is constitutional.
No question has to be answered.
Not every answer is truthful.
Just assume he DOES (or at least might, since some who’re infected don’t know) and don’t bite him.
David for biting your tongue, not your doctor
jp said….”To eab,
Ask someone who has taken an EMT class or better yet, take one yourself. You will
find that “tallho” is correct according to law.”
I said….Thanks for the suggestion. I would like to have a more reliable source than “ask someone”. If this law exists, I would like to read it for myself so I can estimate what the punishment (if any) may be for asking my doctor this.
If a person is sure that this is on the books and they *say* it is on the books, they should be able to cite their source a bit better than “ask someone” or “take a course”.
To eab,
Ask someone who has taken an EMT class or better yet, take one yourself. You will
find that “tallho” is correct according to law.
tallyho said…”Lets see a doctor can ask you if there is a gun in your home, But you cannot ask him if he has AIDS!!!!!!!! Before sticking his hand in your mouth.”
I said….Could you cite the source of this information please?
Lets see a doctor can ask you if there is a gun in your home, But you cannot ask him if he has AIDS!!!!!!!! Before sticking his hand in your mouth.
The vast majority of guns made down through the years have never hurt anyone.
In fact, you can load a gun and take the safety off and lay it in plain sight on the
table and leave it for years and it will hurt noone. That is, until some fool picks it
up.
I will say however, guns like automobiles should not be owned and operated by
everyone.
REGARDING:
“So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.”
Without checking the numbers, it seems likely. On the other hand, doctors are constantly trying to deal with life and death situations so a few mistakes add up quickly,.whereas, most guns are motionless and only brought out when needed.
So if we took time in operation and compared THAT to number of deaths, I wouldn’t be surprised to find guns were more deadly. After all that is what they’re designed to do–kill when necessary.
So now looking at the numbers, you have 700,000 physicians accidentally killing 120,000 people per year. Assuming a lazy doctor who only works 40 hours per week that’s 5.24 quadrillion seconds of doctoring to only kill 120,000 people or one death for every 43.68 million seconds of operation.
Now, if you fired a gun once per second, how many people would be killed after 43.68 million shots? Probably more than one. So looking at it that way, guns are more dangerous than doctors. That makes sense since even poor doctors are trying to save lives and people firing guns should be trying to kill people.
I’m not griping about the doctors or the guns, each has his, her or its place in life. Just considering the numbers.
David meditating
then ciphering
So let’s add pediatricians to the growing list of people many of our citizens are afraid of. Folks, just tell the doctor you don’t want to answer the question or find another doctor. As part of his business a doctor should be able to ask whatever he wants to. Only a communist would try to restrain a person from running their business however he or she wants to.
C’mon folks. There’s not as much out there to be afraid of as y’all think. You are jumping at shadows here.
Why ask anything? A doctor can tell a parent “Pools are dangerous, don’t let your 2 year old near one without supervision.” Its not necessary to ask if the parent OWNS a pool to tell them this. Same for guns. Why “ask” anything? Tell them . . . a 2 year old is very curious, IF you have guns, you might consider locking them up. Even if you hate guns and will never own one, your child might visit another child, in a house where guns exist, so you might train them to respect guns and leave them alone. Nothing about that requires asking if the parent has guns. . . As a nation, and a body of lawmakers, we seem to constantly take the extra effort to make everything as difficult an conflicting as humanly possible. So don’t “ask” anything . . . tell parents what will endanger their child. And let the parent act against those dangers as they see fit. You may save the child from some danger the parent didn’t think of. Why build the controversy and difficulty into the situation by asking?
(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.
Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now think about this:
Guns
(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (Yes, that’s 80 million)
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.
Statistics courtesy of FBI
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.
If pediatricians were only interested in children’s safety they would be more concerned in whether the family had a pool or visited anyone with one. Whether the family went swimming anywhere. Whether everyone in care of a child could perform CPR.
Should pediatricians inquire as to whether the parents are safe drivers?
Water and vehicles kill many more children than guns.
Greg Evers is one of the few that exercises common sense.
I know of no case where children caught measels, chiken pox, mumps, or any
other illness because parents use their constitutional right to own a firearm.
How would a physician treat such a disorder? Is there a shot one can take
that would immune a child from any danger?
The problem is not the doctor asking the patient, it is how this information may be stored and used against the patient at a later time.
Once this information is provided, it can be legally accessed by anyone with access… for a largely divergent set of agendas.
For instance, insurance companies have access to patient care records. Suppose they are looking for a reason to raise rates… the ‘gun in the home’ data block could be used to do so. Or, let’s say a LEO is investigating a bogus abuse claim… the ‘gun in the home’ block might have real implications for a parent….
A good parent HAS to take their child to a doctor for care. This should not REQUIRE a parent to disclose information on gun ownership as a condition of that care.
I really don’t see the big deal here. The docs just want to look out for the kids best interest if your responsible then you have nothing to worry about.
I don’t have guns in my home, but it is an invasion of privacy to have to report to my children’s pediatrician if I did.
I want to thank Senator Greg Evers for bringing Common Sense to OUR
Capital!!!!!!!!