From Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. They have a message board at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/discussion/1,2194,173,00.html
Here's the article:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0,1136,29000000000116253,00.html
Bill would ban guns from hospitals
By STACEY SINGER Sun-Sentinel
Web-posted: 10:52 p.m. Mar. 22, 2000
TALLAHASSEE -- One year after a disgruntled patient gunned down his chief of surgery, Aventura Hospital CEO Davide Carbone made the rounds of the Capitol on Wednesday, urging legislators to ban weapons from health-care facilities.
Since Dr. Bradley Silverman was shot to death inside his Aventura office last year, some hospital staff members have asked for metal detectors at hospital entrances, Carbone said. But existing law would render metal detectors meaningless, he said.
"Recently, an individual was in our hospital with a handgun. We called police and they said, 'We're sorry, but if that person is licensed to carry a firearm, there is nothing we can do,'" Carbone said. "Schools are protected, sports arenas are protected, but we're not protected."
A bill sponsored by Sen. Ron Silver, D-North Miami, and Rep. Willie Logan, D-Opa-locka, would add health-care offices to places where weapons are illegal.
Beyond professional athletic events, state law bans firearms from airports, polling places, schools, colleges, government meetings and taverns. Yet Logan said he can't convince key committees to hear his proposal, HB 1881.
"We just added metal detectors to enter the House," he said. "You'd think we would give health-care workers the same protection."
Florida's gun lobby has vowed to fight the bill, saying it is too broad.
"This would have the effect of telling a doctor who is licensed for his own protection that he can't have a firearm in his office," said Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and the Unified Sportsmen of Florida. "There are thousands of doctors and nurses who work in health-care facilities who get licenses to carry concealed weapons."
At a news conference to draw attention to the bill, Logan was flanked by representatives of the Florida Nurses Association, the Florida Hospital Association, the Association of Community Hospitals and Health Systems of Florida, and the North Broward Hospital District. All said they fear violence, as attacks on medical workers increase.
In July, a receptionist at a doctor's office in Boca Raton was stabbed with a steak knife after she told an 88-year-old man that he would have to wait a few minutes to see a doctor.
The same month, a man brought into the emergency room at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital grabbed a police officer's gun, shot the officer, then shot himself.
"I think we owe it to our health care providers," Silver said. "They should be able to go about their work uninhibited and unafraid."
Stacey Singer can be reached at ssinger@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.
