I have a hard time believing a surgeon could be so stupid, so I suspect he's a liar.
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Actually - he's not a surgeon - FWTW. He claims to be a "trauma specialist" - self designation - but he's really just an emergency room specialist and that attitude is widespread in that group. The other one is a "trauma care type surgeon" - a long ways from the general surgeons of my day who were trained to do everything from closing lacerations to open heart surgery, etc.
I graduated med school over half century ago and finished my surgical training at the county hospital in Detroit in 1960 - having served in WWII and knowing they couldn't win the Korean War without me ( couldn't with me as it turned out).
I've been a "gun nut" a lot longer - here I am in about 1934 with the 22 rifle I got several years before for my 6th birthday -
If you were a Marine in 1950 and were told this fresh faced kid was your Assistant Battalion Surgeon - would that inspire confidence - or just give you one more reason to try to avoid getting wounded ???
I'm long retired now and am glad to be out of medicine - for many reasons. The med societies (who function much as the NRA does - being most interested in the financial support of the full time staff and, if the members benefit - good coincidence) are long on condemning guns and there are other embarrassments in the way the practice of medicine has changed.
However, they are having their problems also - I'd guess the general public doesn't know Medicare has reduced physician fees across the board between 4 - 6% each year the past 8 years and, if a new bill isn't passed, the reduction across the board will be 10.6% come July 1, 2008 - while rent and all other expenses go up and I don't think anybody gets malpractice insurance now for under $100,000 per year.
Making things worse, I continued my BC/BS to avoid Medicare for me and my wife but find out, if you are getting SS - the insurance companies only have to pay the Medicare level fee - thus, for the same service - one fee is paid for my wife (not on SS yet) and a lower fee for me!
I remain a dedicated gun lover - as most of my surviving colleagues are - and, as can be seen - haven't changed appearance - much
YMMV