Medical question about handguns

Equalizer,
On all counts, "You betcha!"

Like you, my problem is separating the wheat from the chaff. We've been misled and lied to so much it's hard to trust much of anything we haven't had our own little hands on! ;)

Again, I don't KNOW why the doctors ask such questions, but (thanks to this thread) my wife and Mom know how to answer it!

(with a straight face even....) :D
 
Great post, Sawbones. I am 47 years out of medical school and 5 years into retirement from a career in surgery, much of which was trauma surgery. I have been a shooter and collector since 1932. I think some things need clarification.
First, the US Public Health Service, being the good bureaucracy it is, has a need to expand its horizons (in order to get more money from congress-plus, that's what bureaucracies do-try to expand) so they claim gun violence is a public health problem and guns are the "virus". It doesn't take medical expertise to know that gun violence and murder are criminal justice problems. Tuberculosis, AIDS, bad water, etc are public health problems.
Medical organizations, on the other hand, tend to be largely political organizations who profess to represent the patients and the physicians. In reality, like many other do-good organizations, much of the reason for their continued existence is to support the organization and paid staff. I don't really believe the pro gun physicians are that much in the minority of all physicians but probably are in the minority of medical politicians.
Physicians should direct their attention toward solving medical problems such as reducing the needless deaths from "medical misadventures" and leave politics to politicians. Unfortunately, large organizations will always attract politicans.
It is not just medical organizations, either, as witness the antigun stance of the American Bar Association. Lawyers, however, seem smart enough to avoid asking such stupid questions of their clients if it is not connected to their case.

O J KING, MD, FACS

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OJ
NRA LIFE MEMBER


[This message has been edited by OJ (edited September 20, 1999).]

[This message has been edited by OJ (edited September 20, 1999).]

[This message has been edited by OJ (edited September 21, 1999).]
 
Dennis, when all you see is dirt, the fun's getting started (oh, I loved that SNJ-5...gotta do the Mustang, next).

SAWBONES, er, wakaranai? Post was from Monty Pyton's Flying Circus, Episode 37, aired 1/4/1973, BBC. "Perhaps I should have said", rather not a member of Pythoninae offed by the local sun god.
 
Re: CDC, et al.

No matter what the statutory intent, no matter what the mission statement says, no matter what the director's speeches proclaim, the primary mission of a bureaucracy is to perpetuate and expand itself. Everything else is secondary.

Jim
 
While I haven't personally encountered this problem yet, I have formulated my response should the situation ever arise.
If I were filling out a questionnaire that inquires about my ownership of firearms, I will draw a line through it, and in whatever marginal space is available on the form, I will ask the physician how many Malpractice suits have been filed against him?
In view of recent findings concerning the number of fatalities connected to "mistakes" made by medical personnel, I feel my question is more pertinent to my health and safety than his.
 
Took my Mom to the new doctor yesterday (taught class all day today). We had to fill out the necessary 147 or so generic forms (sigh). Mom can't read the forms so I fill them out.

There was no question about firearms; however there was a question:

"Do you wear seat belts? yes___; no____"
I checked YES and added, "Even on my rocking chair!"

While we waited in the front room, the doctor apparently read the forms for we heard him start laughing - loudly! (Mentioned it later with us, too.)

Seems like a nice chap. An American of full Indian (India) ancestry. Pleasant, thorough, took time with Mom, asked lots of questions and gave explanations freely and completely. I like him. So does Mom.

Kinda disapointed though. Mom and I were all warmed up to be nasty about firearms questions - there weren't any. ;)
 
Sawbones & OJ: Thank you for your informed opinions, based on your experiences as doctors. Unfortunately, groups such as the AMA speak with such moral and intellectual certitude and near-arrogance, that the average person, probably feeling somewhat uneducated by comparison, swallows their dogma whole. Thanks for dispelling the myths.

[This message has been edited by Covert Mission (edited September 22, 1999).]
 
I took a physical for the National Gaurd last Saturday. Part of that physical was a form that rated your life expectancy and what you could do to change it.

One of my things to change was Avoid use of handguns. I made a little bit of a stink about this on site and the Nurse just said don't pay any attention to that they are just anti-gun.

The next day I qualified on the M-9 range?????????????Their hipocracy knows no bounds.


Later
Daren
 
Covert,
You are welcome. I'm one of you. If you can lay your hands on Kopel's book "GUNS-WHO SHOULD HAVE THEM", I think you would find the chapter on "Bad Medicine- Doctors and Guns" to be very enlightening. The public health types at the CDC have had a stated antigun stance since 1979. The rest of the book is good also- worth owning.

O J KING, MD, FACS

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OJ
NRA LIFE MEMBER
 
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