The American Academy of Family Physicians tells us that “The American Medical Association (AMA) has published a 38-page set of guidelines to help physicians perform risk assessments and counsel patients on protecting themselves from firearm injury. The monograph, titled ‘Physician Firearm Safety Guide,’ is the eighth in a series on violence and abuse topics from the AMA’s National Coalition of Physicians Against Family Violence.
The guide reviews the epidemiology of firearm deaths and injuries, and discusses the clinical aspects of firearm injury, including assessment of risk, management of high-risk situations, information and education in nonacute situations, key educational points on firearm safety, and gun disposal.
The guide contains a patient education handout and a list of resources on the subject of firearm safety. The firearm safety monograph can be obtained from the AMA by calling 312-464-5066.
They never returned my call and I can’t find it online.
Meanwhile, Robert J. Woolley, M.D. of Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws thinks it’s a bunch of stuff and nonsense . . .
The AMA has lent its name, logo, prestige, and funding to the production of “educational” information for its members and their patients (the booklet includes a tear-out sheet to give to them) which is scientifically unsound, politically biased, and intellectually dishonest. It is an embarrassment to have a professional association which declares itself dedicated to science produce a publication that falls so short of basic academic tenets of honesty and fairness. The authors of the Physician Firearm Safety Guide clearly believe that their point of view would not be persuasive if they presented the evidence in an even-handed manner and allowed their readers to evaluate the evidence on their own. AMA members might consider whether they approve of their dues being spent to produce propaganda that so insults their intelligence.
Or not.
