The American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American College of Surgeons, American Psychiatric Association and the American Public Health Association have joined with the American Bar Association to issue a five-page statement in the Annals of Internal Medicine calling for more gun control. Specifically . . .
universal background checks of gun purchasers, elimination of physician “gag laws,” restricting the manufacture and sale of military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines for civilian use, and research to support strategies for reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths. The health professional organizations also advocate for improved access to mental health services and avoidance of stigmatization of persons with mental and substance use disorders through blanket reporting laws.
Just in case you’re thinking that these recommendation infringe upon Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms (as RF would say), “The American Bar Association, acting through its Standing Committee on Gun Violence, confirms that none of these recommendations conflict with the Second Amendment or previous rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Let’s look at those recommendations again:
On requiring background checks for all firearm purchases : “The only way to ensure that all prohibited purchasers are prevented from acquiring firearms is to make background checks a universal requirement…”
On the call for a ban on “assault weapons“: “We believe that private ownership of military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines represents a grave danger to the public…”
Regarding physician gag laws: ” . . .physicians must be allowed to speak freely to their patients in a nonjudgmental manner about firearms, provide patients with factual information about firearms relevant to their health and the health of those around them…without fear of liability or penalty.”
In an editorial accompanying the statement – “Reducing Firearm-Related Harms: Time for Us to Study and Speak Out” – the Annals of Internal Medicine’s editors assert that it’s high time for doctors to tackle “gun violence.” After all, that’s the strategy laid-out by the civilian disarmament industry, openly championed by the Obama Administration’s new Surgeon General. And who’s better for the job than docs?
When public health crises arise, our powerful health care complex responds by doing what our scientific training and duty to help others require. We formulate questions that need answers, collect and analyze data to answer them, test hypotheses to discover remedies, study how to implement them, and monitor progress. This is how polio was nearly eliminated, automobile-related injury and death rates were reduced, tobacco-related illness decreased, and an Ebola epidemic is being curtailed. The list goes on. But it seems to stop when it comes to firearm injury. Why?
Anyone care to educate them?
Sounds like a call for a pre-determined “study” where they’ve already decided the results before they crunch one piece of data. Nice scam to get your hands on taxpayer money. We could save all that money since they’ve given their preferences……er results.
Liberal science. Scientific method not included.
This is why very few of us LOTG (Lawyers of the Gun) are ABA members anymore.
Anyone start a pro 2a aba yet?
let me know if you do. I’m in.
I like how they want to ban a bunch of stuff, THEN do the research. Last time I checked, that’s not how science works…
“Look over here at this hand so you avoid seeing….”
The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) seminal study of preventable medical errors estimated as many as 98,000 people die every year at a cost of $29 billion. If the Centers for Disease Control were to include preventable medical errors as a category, these conclusions would make it the sixth leading cause of death in America.
Further research has confirmed the extent of medical errors. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that there were 181,000 severe injuries attributable to medical negligence in 2003. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement estimates there are 15 million incidents of medical harm each year. HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare rating organization, found that Medicare patients who experienced a patient-safety incident had a one-in-five chance of dying as a result.
In the decade since the IOM first shined a light on the dismal state of patient safety in American hospitals, many proposals for improvement have been discussed and implemented. But recent research indicates that there is still much that needs to be done. Researchers at the Harvard School of Medicine have found that even today, about 18 percent of patients in hospitals are injured during the course of their care and that many of those injuries are life-threatening, or even fatal. The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that one in seven Medicare patients are injured during hospital stays and that adverse events during the course of care contribute to the deaths of 180,000 patients every year.
http://freedomoutpost.com/2012/12/medical-malpractice-deaths-nine-times-higher-than-gun-homicides-lets-end-the-ama/
Doctors, heal thyself.
I’ve seen other estimates that up to 250,000 preventable deaths due to medication and surgery negligence.
So we have a couple of hundred negligent deaths due to guns each year and over 200,000 deaths due to medical negligence.
Yep. I can see the need for an urgent response to the catastrophic death toll in our hospitals.
Oh, wait a minute, I mis-read the article. It’s guns that are the problem.
Silly me, I’s just some ignant serf don’t hav the edumacation to unnerstan such tings.
They know the numbers, they want people to stay out of the hospitals so they can’t be sued for their negligence. Some conspiracy theorists would say that’s the main purpose of obamacare. While they would love to make diseases and injuries illegal to avoid liability entirely they can’t, so the low-hanging fruit is to ban guns. They ignore cars of course because they use them to get around.
They DO know better. They keep lying anyway…
I just can’t understand how a medical provider can implicate “assault weapons” when they account for such a tiny percentage of deaths…and that is coming from a future physician. Evidence based medicine please.
/end rant.
If you feel this strongly, please continue to be active. There ARE physicians and other healthcare professionals who oppose this nonsense.
The podiatrists and chiropractors are still with us right?
and Pharmacists, and Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants and EMTs, etc…
I know a number of nurses that don’t agree with gun control either. This group should stick to medicine instead of politics. Kinda like how the Government should stick to politics instead of medicine.
I’d like to “implicate” medical professionals for not washing their hands after going to the bathroom or sneezing, which causes tens of thousands of prentable deaths every year.
Medically negligent discharge.
As a future physician myself, I couldn’t agree with you more. Where is the science-based medicine that doesn’t appeal to emotion?
So we need studies, to prove the conclusions they have already reached? How about they use all those studies (including that one the CDC produced) that shows their position is untenable.
No. You don’t get it… They will design the study so they get the answers they want… I mean assume they already know… I mean for the children.
Stalin would refer to these people as useful idiots.
Agenda trumps fact.
Focus on one tool of criminal behavior to the exclusion of everything else.
If the we’re interested in reducing the health impact of violent crime they would not want to advocate making it harder for the law abiding to own guns
I don’t like gag laws but I also don’t like how health forms (unrelated to lead) were asking about firearm ownership.
Half of the physicians who want to talk to their clients about firearms don’t know jack about them.
If I get.just one question from a doctor about firearms, I walk out immediately after I chastise them for not being properly certified to ask questions about a subject they know nothing about.
Murders and gun accidents have been dropping rapidly. I’d rather see MY money spent on cancer research or something else that would actually benefit us.
I’m guessing that these so called ‘educated’ idiots can’t find the FBI statistics. Besides, how many M4’s are running around the streets of this country? Is that what these fools are referring to as ‘military weapons’ or are they doing the normal thing of mistakingly equating a AR semi with a ‘military weapon’? Ignorance is not a good thing.
Sophistry would be the kindest way to put it. I’d call it lying, peculation, partisan hackery, and professional pandering. (But that’s just me.)
It’s somewhat embarrassing to realize that even very smart people can be in favor of some very dumb things. Just consider the “assault weapons ban” or a ban on “high-capacity magazines.” Even various gun control advocates I’ve spoken to acknowledge that that particular avenue of legislation makes no sense: all rifles, let alone “assault weapons,” are rarely used in murder, the 1994-2004 AWB had no significant effect on crime dealt by “assault weapons,” and neither did the 10-round magazine restrictions of the time. I mean, the AWB in particular is really rather silly, in terms of what gets counted as an “assault weapon” and what doesn’t e.g. compare a Mini-14 to an AR-15, and there’s nothing to suggest that such measures make any significant effect on combating violence.
The gun control advocates I’ve spoken to are at least more consistent – they want an across the board registration followed by confiscation of all firearms – unlikely to immediately occur in this climate. However, for many, the type of legislation advocated by these medical organizations might be a stepping stone to further, increasingly restrictive legislation. See Charles Krauthammer’s “Disarm the citizenry, but not yet.”
Helping a first time (CA) buyer shop around online has really knocked this point home for me. She wanted a CX4 after seeing it, I explained its a no go because you can put your thumb through the stock. “Why would that matter?” I’m asked. To which there is no good answer. Same thing with the zero round sled mag requirement for Uzi type guns, which is now also illegal. How any of those features make the gun deadlier than a C&R Tokarev (which is far easier to conceal) is irrelevant to the banners. Only that those guns look like something they saw in a movie once, where it was full auto, and oh so scary.
I read that as Animals of Internal Medicine. I’ve had a few beers.
I’m having coffee and I saw “Anals of Internal Medicine.”
Then thought, why do proctologists need to be butting into gun control?
So to speak.
Most medical doctors want to mind their own business and get the govt off their own backs. The AMA is the vehicle that makes it possible for the Governemnt to exploit any positive image that medical doctors still have and use it for the disarmament agenda.
I find it funny that medical professionals are trying to tackle what is supposedly a mental health issue.
The American Mini- Bar Association, acting through its Supreme Soviet Committee on Guns committing Violence, confirms that none of these recommendations conflict with the revised living Constitution Second Amendment which gives only the National Guard the privilege of bearing arms in time of war.
As the chairman of the American Mini-Bar Association, I’m offended that you’d implicate the manufacturers and purveyors of consumer-size alcohol prep and serving stations in such nefarious acts. We at the AMBA seek only to enable our members and end users to have a great night with friends and family in the comfort of their own rumpus rooms, without having to hassle with parking, taxis, bouncers, cover charges and worst of all, third-rate bartenders that like to water down drinks!
ABA has been irrelevant for the last 10 yrs. And even they know it.
Well, you beat me to it. I was just going to note that the ABA has been full-on behind every leftist, statist concept to come down the pike for as long as I can remember. Their “rating” of a potential SCOTUS justice used to carry inordinate weight, but I believe even that is no longer the case.
As is the AMA. A bunch of political hacks.
Took the words right out of my mouth, Dirk. The AMA has little credibility with the physicians it used to reliably serve. It was a bunch of AMA hacks who lined up in support of Obamacare, thereby royally pissing off doctors who have the temerity to try to earn a living by actually making people well. My old-school, private practice, GP is struggling to keep his practice going because of the antics of these idiots. When guys like him are gone, we’re all in trouble.
The AMA was instrumental in the establishment of the “licensing” cabals that took medicine out of the hands of the people and replaced it with government power, one way or another. The AMA, and all the similar “professional” organizations are primarily interested in their own pockets, perks and power… not what patients want or need.
Don’t they just have giant brass balls?
Consumer Reports says “Medical errors are linked to 440,000 deaths each year.”
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/05/survive-your-hospital-stay/index.htm
Hell, that’s more deaths than the actual military causes each year with “military style assault weapons.”
Ban doctors! For the children!
Anybody ever wonder why they call the legal profession terms such as being admitted to the bar, practicing before the bar, bar association, etcetera? Is this because the legal system is comprised of a bunch of lushes?
If these goddamn hypocrites are so concerned about lives, shouldn’t they first focus on the 100,000 some odd annual deaths from infections that people contract AT A DAMN HOSPITAL! You want to reduce the 5,000 some odd annual murders (not counting suicides or gang-related killings)? Fine, good for you. But you absolutely do NOT hold the moral high ground when your profession causes 20 times as many deaths (that are completely preventable, by the way) and you don’t even make a PEEP about it. Fvckers.
Those hospital transmitted infections are extremely hard to prevent. It means health care workers need to wash their hands frequently and use bleach wipes on commonly touched surfaces. Oh, the humanity.
And let us not forget the 210,000 annual deaths in which medical errors contribute.
http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_based_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx
Physician, heal thyself.
Huh huh huh hhhh
He said Annals!
Uhh huh huhh huhhhhh.
(Sorry, I had to. Many of you wanted to but obviously had more willpower than I)
Does this have anything to do with our “new” attorney general?
You mean surgeon general I assume.
And then on the other hand in recent years more and more doctors that I know own firearms themselves. Including legal NFA fully automatic weapons. To say nothing of M92 Beretta’s, Springfield XD 45’s, hunting rifles, and all manner of shotguns. These guys were not weenie roast internists — actually they all were surgeons of one sort or another. I am rather surprised that the American College of Surgeons would have glommed on to this nonsense. Then again, as most of us in the business know, all too many of these policy statements come from academics who “work” in “gun-free” ivory towers surrounded by high crime neighborhoods, and are not necessarily representative of the rank and file. Although lately they are being killed right in the hospitals by psycho patients and relatives, which may explain the paranoia if not the irrational response. The comments by the American Bar Association, well, what did Shakespeare say — the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
More professional organizations that have been captured by activists more interested in pushing a fringe agenda than representing the views and interests of their members.
“5 out of 4 government approved doctors agree that being raped then beaten to death is less unpleasant than dealing with the psychological trauma that might result from shooting a home invader.”
They don’t care about facts. The bottom line to all this crap is someday, they will tell you to turn your stuff in. Either you will, or you won’t… That’s all that matters…I pray most true Americans tell them to F/O…
Umm yeah…
I think its funny how there seems to be a correlation between how much time one spends in an academic environment (med school, law school, academics…) and the idea that they know what’s better for me than I do.
Doc…How about you worry about telling me I’m fat, need to exercise more and how this is going to be a little uncomfortable, and I’ll worry about my firearms, which have nothing to do with my health…well, other than lowering my blood pressure when we’re putting lead downrange.
You’ll enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TANKw6eUMP4
Thomas Sowell basically explains why those “experts” who would deliver us to utopia if only they had all the power are almost always wrong.
As a healthcare provider I’m not surprised by this at all. What passes for the “organizations” speaking out is an extremely small number of board members who set the agenda. They know that MDs/PAs/ARNPs are too busy with, oh, I don’t know….ACTUAL PATIENT CARE to be bothered putting up much opposition to the raving lunacy of organization leadership.
“In 2004, a research report submitted to the United States Department of Justice and the National Institute of Justice found that should the ban be renewed, its effects on gun violence would likely be small, and perhaps too small for reliable measurement, because rifles in general, including rifles referred to as “assault rifles” or “assault weapons”, are rarely used in gun crimes.[26] That study by Christopher S. Koper, Daniel J. Woods, and Jeffrey A. Roth of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania found no statistically significant evidence that either the assault weapons ban or the ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds had reduced gun murders.” Thank you, Wikipedia – there’s your careful research, data, and hypotheses….
Stick to smoking cessation, child poisonings, and seat belts.
David, you said that just right. While I’m not an MD, I have 30+ active years in health care both at the clinical and industry side ranging from research assistant to senior clinical scientist. Having had a few abstracts, posters and manuscripts submitted, published and/or rejected, I can honestly say after reading that paper if it involved actual health care issues it would have never passed peer review.
It would be embarrassing to those organization if they dared consider a challenged response to the papers, but you know as well as I that they would never allow them to be published. Besides which, the providers that would write a challenge are generally too busy actually doing the work of making a real difference.
Why should seat belts be a medical concern?
I’m a retired APRN, and lifelong avid gun owner. Never joined any of the poisonous “professional” organizations.
The big question is: who is in control of your life? You… or doctors, lawyers, etc.
People who go to doctors, lawyers, etc. to help them find answers to the problems they wish to address… are taking personal responsibility for their own lives. Anyone who thinks these professionals should be involved in legislating their health or “safety” are deluded.
Well said, hopefully you keep this in mind as a coordinated media/pharmaceutical effort is currently underway to deprive Americans of their civil liberties of making informed medical decisions with regards to vaccines.
If the ABA and the various MD organizations really wanted to improve the lives of Americans, they would push for tort reform first, and then tackle the epidemic of medical malpractice that kills 100,000 people a year.
People go to hospitals to get well. Instead, their own doctors kill them. And the white coated jackasses complain about guns? That sounds like misdirection to me. Sleight of hand. A parlor trick by incompetent buffoons.
Next up: The NRA, GOA, 2A Foundation and The American Association of Relying on Actual Data Instead of Hysterically Jumping on Political Bandwagons (awkward acronym) issue a joint position paper on fatalities caused by medical errors.
Doctors and lawyers collaborating together?
Why is it I smell Bloomberg’s foul odor all over this unlikely marriage?
Are they building a stepping stone to “Reeducation Clinics”?
Sounds like it to me.
How about Docs concentrate on things that kill more people than assault weapons and they are actual experts on, like medical mistakes.
I also think that the majority of doctors that don’t support these liberal administrators should come out and tell them to shove their opinions where the sun doesn’t shine. Which I believe the medical term is probably colon, or bowels.
The word you’re looking for is “rectum”.
Rectum? Hell, damn near killed him!
Are they building a stepping stone to “Reeducation Clinics”?
Sounds like it to me.
First Gun Registration.
Second, Gun Confiscation.
Third Incarceration.
Lastly, Reeducation through Chemical and Electrical “Therapy”.
Over The Cuckoo’s Nest?
Ha, probably not, TV is the greatest mind control tool available, no need for physical re education camps.
Doctors need to do what they are paid to do. Otherwise they need sued for fraud. I don’t need a podiatrist to tell my how to tune up my 1911a1. Nor do a I go to a pistol smith to have him look at my damn toe. Are these Drs going to be required to have an ffl to give advise under Affordable Care Act etc? My pistol smith would have to have a medical license to practice medicine.
What we see here is what is seen in other professions. All these organizations are far left that when they speak the only speak in echo chambers. Not just in this case of gun control within there own professional organizations it is hard to find truth because they are too busy agreeing with each other they cannot see that anything is wrong so often their conclusions are wrong. Because they do not allow other opinions, they assume whatever they say is always right.
Truth or the better decision can only come with opposing views, all we have here are bunch of nodding yes to themselves all the time. It is why all those professional organizations are hated so much and are losing respect in general.
Please don’t conflate actual doctor’s with these organizations. They don’t represent us, and have not for a long time. I haven’t been a part of the AAP since they supported Obamacare, and have said so often. Their policy statement on guns is pure horsesh**t and I’ve said that as well. In fact, many of their policy statements and guidelines fall along the same lines like the instruction manual for a clothes iron that says not to use while sleeping.
I’ve learned to summarize my preventative medicine guidelines to patients into 3 phrases: do what your parents did, don’t do stupid things, and don’t listen to anything I say…. It’s saved me a lot of time 🙂
Healthcare provider here (non-physician, allied health profession).
Health professionals don’t need to have shit to do with firearms. Firearms are not a medical concern, and healthcare professionals have no special expertise in firearm interaction due to their *healthcare training*.
If I’m chatting guns with one of my patients, it’s because we’re discussing a shared interest.
My doctor likes guns. Other than treating medical problem these “professionals ” need to heal thyself…
How come they are not bitching about tobacco that kills over ten times more people? The bar association doesn’t mean anything either. Since when do we care what a bunch of lying lawyers say?
We should have law passed that any lawyer or doctor who signs on agrees to only be paid minimum wage, with the rest going to the government in the name of the children. Surely the govt knows how to spend the extra money better than these fools.
I read something once about yakking about the splinter someone’s eye while ignoring the plank in your own…
Sad part is, there is a great number of people in this country who buy the whole “I went to college, no way I could be full of shit.” line at face value. Appeal to authority, title, pomp, circumstance, whatnot.
I am a Biomedical Equipment Tech. I fix the stuff the doctors and nurses break. I see the dark underbelly of hospitals. The “we cleaned the feces up with water”, the “checking to see if the equipments inspection is expired isn’t our job when it comes to patient safety”, and the walking into operating rooms while eating a cookie. These are just some of the things I’ve seen, and at one of the supposed “Top Ten” in the nation hospitals. These people are trying to kill you and have it look like they did all they could. Just look at the phases they use. They “treat” diseases, not cure them, there is no money from the insurers, governments, or patients themselves if they cure people. Look at the drugs they feed people and their side effects. I work in this field to put food on the table for my wife and I, but refuse to go see a doctor for anything but the most life threatening issues, which are few and far between. All this being said, they can keep their opinions to themselves concerning my Rights.
“But it seems to stop when it comes to firearm injury. Why?”
Why? Because gun violence is a criminal justice issue, not a public health issue, and because none of their proposals will reduce gun violence. That’s why.
“But it seems to stop when it comes to firearm injury. Why?”
Why? Because gun violence is a criminal justice issue, not a public health issue, and because none of their proposals will reduce gun violence. That’s why.
Medical malpractice kills multiple times more people in the US than guns do. They should worry about the log in their eye before worrying about the speck in ours.
Strange, It didn’t take my edit and removed my name from my original comment.
The system sometimes refuses to allow me to edit a comment, I discovered I can often get around it by selecting “reply”, then when the page comes up hitting “cancel reply”, after which the “edit” dialog is up and running. It is still a work in progress.
“research to support strategies for reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths.”
I’m all for that. I think the four rules of safety are great, but if someone could show scientifically proven methods of training gun owners in safety that have statistically significant success rates, that’s a win for everyone. I just don’t trust these organizations to be unbiased…
“The health professional organizations also advocate for … avoidance of stigmatization of persons with mental and substance use disorders through blanket reporting laws.”
Let me get this straight. A great number of people in our nation’s health care system:
(1) do not like firearms
(2) do not want anyone to own firearms
(3) want lots of laws criminalizing ownership of broad classes of firearms
(4) want to “assess” whether or not we are of sound mind to own firearms
And then they claim that they oppose blanket reporting laws for mental and substance abuse disorders … apparently to protect our rights?
In summary many people in our nation’s health care system know better than the rest of us, are desperately seeking to infringe on our rights, and claim to be advocating to protect our rights. Why should I trust these people?
Maybe now the whole government takeover of medicine will make more sense. They can’t truly take over until we are disarmed. This is just one more reason for me to not trust doctors.
If you read the article, pay close attention because it is truly loaded with fail. At least in my opinion.
I particularly like the line;
“No ruling of the Supreme Court (or any other court, for that matter) calls into question any of the specific proposals that we recommend.”
Basically, we can do it because nobody has said we couldn’t. And yet I seem to recall something about ‘Shall not be infringed’ somewhere. Oh hell I’m getting old, I probably just imagined that.
We all realize that these are the people (doctors and lawyers) we have been taught to respect since the day we were born. The elite, the best of the best, these are the people we are taught to look up to.
To answer the question, I have no interest in trying to educate them, they have had all the education in the world, and still remain so ignorant it is unbelievable. They clearly have no interest in the truth, have been given some kind of incentive to sign on to a crapload of silliness, we just need to stop paying any attention to them.
And this is why the ABA will never see a dime from me.
Seems to me if physicians are worried about liability or penalty, they would be better off to STFU about their opinions on firearms in general.
Just more of the coordinated gun-grab campaign, that was expected, post election- especially after Obama chose his CDC head from the least qualified, but most corrupt community organizers at Doctors For Obama.
Nothing new here, its just getting tiresome and predictable in the corruption and collusion of faux science and professional groups, further lowering trust in role models that the public once believed in , for figures like Doctors, and Professors, now as a whole they are all corrupted by politics and money of the worst sort,
thanks to the Community Organizer in Chief and his enablers in the Progressive Movement v2.0, as enabled by the once free Press, who prostituted truth for the illusion of power.
Not all medical associations are represented in this statement. The American Medical Association, for example.
Wait for the first civil lawsuit of a “gun violence” victim against not the perpetrator (who is pennyless), but against the doctor of the perpetrator who didn’t do a good enough job educating his patient on gun safety. The ABA is already rubbing their hands for opening a whole new deep pocket as victims for frivolous law suits. Is the AMA really so stupid that they don’t realize they are making a pact with the devil here?
Wow. I wandered into this echo chamber by mistake. It was enlightening to read the screeds of folks representing the views of the some 7% of gun owners (Quinnipiac University Poll, July 2014) who oppose universal background checks for firearms sales. Sort of.
What is the point of universal background checks if they eliminate “blanket reporting requirements”?
This is so stupid that it has to be a joke.
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