“In his efforts to curtail Second Amendment rights, Dr. Murthy has continually referred to guns as a public health issue on par with heart disease and has diminished the role of mental health in gun violence. As a physician, I am deeply concerned that he has advocated that doctors use their position of trust to ask patients, including minors, details about gun ownership in the home.” – Sen. Rand Paul, Rand Paul: Obama’s surgeon general pick will use position to attack Second Amendment [at washingtontimes.com]

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84 COMMENTS

  1. Lean into the rifle more. Use a fighting stance, Rand.

    But, on the doctors asking about guns thing. I don’t care if the G requires that they ask and also requires I answer, it ain’t happening on my end.

    • The one positive aspect of ACA is that it prohibits doctors from asking about your guns. That question has disappeared from my doctor’s standard set of questions. I always refused to answer it even though she knows both my wife and I carry guns

      • They are trying to put that into effect, having doctors ask about guns in the home as part of the mental health evaluation.

        • You tell them to go to hell if it wasn’t illegal…

          It wouldn’t the first time that I’ve told someone who had “authority” over me to go screw themselves.

          And, I know a retired E-7 that can vouch for that.

        • “Yeah and sooner or later, refusing to answer will be used as proof of a mental issue”

          Well, then that will be the day that separates the men from the boys I reckon.

        • Haha if you start referencing the Constitution they will certainly say you are suffering from mental problems! That’s one of the hallmarks of a domestic terrorist according to some federal agencies.

        • “Haha if you start referencing the Constitution they will certainly say you are suffering from mental problems! That’s one of the hallmarks of a domestic terrorist according to some federal agencies.”

          You start citing the Constitution and they’ll have the looney farm on the line and the patty wagon in route.

        • It’s pretty easy to assume that anyone not willing to answer if they have guns or not… does, in fact, have guns. For OPSEC purposes, the best response is “No way! Guns are dangerous and only the military and police should have them. I think gun crime could be eliminated if only we could get everyone to turn in their stupid guns. I’ve actually started a Facebook page about this, wanna join?” If he doesn’t believe you, spew more Liberal crap until he does. Most likely he/she will break down once you bring the children into the discussion.

          There’s nothing ‘manly’ or ‘cool’ about being a ‘badass’ towards your doctor only to get reported into some database.

      • What the ACA prohibits is them recording any information about it. They can ask, they just aren’t legally allowed to write down your answer.

    • I think we should care about the mandates for those questions. Wait until they ask your kids about guns when you are not around. Or if school administrators and teachers are making firearms inquiries and pressuring the students for information.

      • My son is 23, well armed and refuses to answer questions about his or his parents firearms. Just as you should train your children in gun safety you should train them to assert their right of privacy when asked intrusive questions by the authorities.

      • Well, my kids don’t go to the doctor without me, but I see your point.

        Which is why I tell my kids repeatedly, don’t talk about our guns with anyone at school, if an adult asks, you tell them I said to call me for an answer, you won’t be in trouble.

      • I’m not too concerned about teachers and school administrators asking my kids. Recently, during the discussion about a proposed CO state bill, my kids’ elementary school principal mentioned to my wife that, if the bill passed and he was allowed to carry on campus, he’d a) have to decide if he wanted to personally and b) if he decided he did want to, get another gun – one more suitable to concealed carry.

    • It may not be a fighting stance, but it looks pretty close to a textbook target rifle stance. At least it’s better than most politicians that do gun pics, holding the thing like it’s going to bite them.

    • Oh, please. Can the PotG PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stop using that made-up term. We never hear about “knife violence” or “fist violence”. Can we just say something like “violent crime”?

      Oh sure, sometimes I hear some murmuring when I open my safe, they never actually do anything by themselves. 8~)

  3. Dr. Murthy is clearly unqualified for the job since he has problems with quantitative analysis. He has continually referred to guns as a public health issue on par with heart disease. There are approximately 600K deaths from heart disease every year versus 30K from guns including suicides. That is a ratio of 20:1. His anti-gun agenda will cost many American lives as he diverts scarce resources from major killers like Heart disease, Cancer and Stroke into a relatively minor problem of the misuse of guns.

  4. When it comes to the President, he hires people that clearly have a anti gun stance. Just look at Eric Holder.

  5. On the bright side fellas, its been a long time since we could laugh at a surgeon general. Not since Joycelyn Elders. Maybe some opportunities for mockery here.

    • Mock obummers sturgeon general?, I’m shocked & hurt that someone would think I would do that./// The words physician heal thyself come to mind & old murthy might want to start with his head.

  6. As a physician I can promise you I have never and will never ask questions about guns in the home (Unless the patient has a tip on a good deal on ammo).

    “They” think they can force doctors to collect their information. They can kiss my ass.

    • I have only one doctor I talk with about guns, and only because he and I shoot at the same range. We don’t talk about guns in his office, other than about deals on ammo and new goodies.

  7. I got stopped one time for not signaling a lane change. The cop asked where I was coming from, I said that was private business in a matter of fact tone of voice; she asked where I was going ; I said that was private business, she then gave me a verbal warning in a pleasant tone of voice and I went on my way.

    Cops out here in Albuquerque have been cool with me; even when it becomes known I’m carrying a gun.

  8. Yet another example of an ideologue employing the ancient “appeal to authority” trick. “Look at me! I’m a famous doctor with lots of degrees and an appointment from the President! Therefore I must be the unquestioned expert on all issues, including the Second Amendment.” Please.

    This is just today’s version of the well-familiar elitests who want to control others.

    • It reminds me of that moron wannabe psychiatrist Stephen Barrett, who for years put himself out as an expert for all things medical, and in the end, he was found to no longer have a license. He was so arrogant in his belief that he was doing good for society, what everyone had failed to question were his motives in trying to overcome his own inadequacy. It turned out he had lied in a number of cases in which he was brought in as an expert witness and yet a WHOLE THRONG of these arrogant elitist medical trash had all signed onto his QuackWatch website in order to seemingly align themselves with equally misinformed “professionals”.

      • Well, he had one at one time! He didn’t lose his expertise when he lost his license.

        Okay, sarcasm.

    • Yes! Give this person a well deserved cookie! Reminds me of a suppressor banner that joked if firearms were invented today, silencers would be mandated by OSHA

    • Although you say that tongue-in-cheek, noise trauma is actually a significant issue with firearms. Suppressors should not only be amended out of the NFA, but should be lobbied for as safety devices for guns. They really are!

    • I agree. He’s not my first choice for President, but he’s on my list, should he choose to run.

      It wasn’t until I saw your post that it occurred to me that my own might be unclear and get misinterpreted. The doctor I meant was Obama’s Surgeon General nominee, not Dr./Sen. Paul.

  11. Guns as a Public health issue?
    I don’t think Iv ever heard of someone claiming that their Heart disease saved their life.

    • Yep! And that’s the crux of it. The antis see guns only as offensive devices rather than as defensive devices. Which is weird given that defensive use is more common than offensive use (“gun-free” zones excepted, of course).

    • Wishful thinking at best. The media will destroy them, prop up some dipstick RINO again and, well…they got away with rigging one election…

      • The media tried to destroy Reagan but couldn’t. Nobody’s listening to them anyway.

      • so, what if they do? does the media pick the president? I’ll admit it makes it an uphill battle, but then so was San Juan Hill.

    • You might (MIGHT) get Paul/Cruz. You’ll never see Cruz/Paul. There is a preemptive uproar coming from the left about the “natural born citizen” clause.

      It’s great that when I say it I’m a righ-wing extremist birther. When a liberal says it they’re a patriot….

      • That born in Canada point of theirs is utter nonsense. He was born to American citizens, who happened to be outside of the U.S. at the time. Thousands of people are born abroad to U.S. citizens every year. Many of the parents are in the military or work for U.S. employers in foreign countries. It’s not even remotely controversial.

        Now, where they could make a lingering fuss is about Cruz’s former Canadian citizenship. That Canada chose to betow citizenship on him for being born there is their business. It doesn’t change his U.S. citizenship by birth. Hell, the UK could make me King of England tomorrow, if they wanted, but their unilateral action does not then strip and deprive me of my U.S. citizenship.

        Besides, this was settled when Panama-born McCain ran in 2008.

        • McCain was born on a U.S. Naval Air Station in Panama. Sovereign U.S. soil. And I didn’t say I LIKED the fact that they’re using that argument against Cruz, I’m saying they’re making the argument. And the way the left behaves in matters like that, they’ll win the argument.

    • I have a problem with someone who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old and two koala bears walked 7,000 miles, all the way from Mt Ararat to Australia with no eucalyptus trees on the way.

        • Rough figures 7.2 billion Earth population, 1.5 billion Christian/Jewish = @ 20%

          It could be argued that a significant percentage of those self-identifying as Christian or Jewish are not whole-heartedly on board with the “Earth is 6,000 years old” pronouncement.

          Just sayin’

        • My numbers may be old, last I knew there were 2.2+ billion Christians. But anywho….

          I’m a Christian in the “not wholeheartedly believe” camp. In fact, I think that’s pretty damn delusional. Not only would one have to believe the koala bear theory above (I like that way of putting it, btw) but you’d also have to believe in a God that would sprinkle rock strata with dinosaur bones just to throw us off the trail….

          Personally, I don’t believe that creationism and evolution are mutually exclusive. It relies heavily on the fact that I don’t believe that every single word in the bible is to be taken absolutely literally. That’s a stance that has led to some pretty intense theological discussions with Bible thumpers. And it’s ALMOST as much fun as arguing with the antis about gun control 🙂

      • Makes as much sense to me as the notion that everything was one big happy accident and we are all just monkeys and over half of Americans think that too. You either believe in a higher power or you don’t. If there is a power capable of creating the entire universe, I’m sure he/she could have taken care of the koalas. I’ve never heard an atheist claim that anything is possible with nobody. On the other hand I don’t personally see any reason to believe certain things in the Bible were meant to be taken literally. Why would a ‘day’ mean 24 hours before there was even a sun or an earth? And perhaps by ‘world’ the Bible meant the world of man, not the literal earth in the flood story. Still it’s not my place to dictate to another his faith.

      • The better question is how they got from Australia to the ark. And two of everything? What, were there only 200 species 5,500 years ago?

  15. Where was all his concern when Corker and all the other Tennessee politicians used there influence to sway the union vote at the Volkswagen plant.

  17. Murthy is 36 year old.
    Yes, thirty six years old.
    If one finishes med school at around 26 to 28 years of age, they will be done with the shortest residency (specialty training) – general Internal Medicine – by 29 to 31 years of age. If they do a fellowship – say Cardiology or Endocrinology – they will be 31 to 33 years old when they are “fully fledged” and can go out and practice solo, without oversight or supervision. (sans fellowship, they will be professionally autonomous at 29 to 31 years old)

    Murthy is 36 years old.

    Yes, it is expected that he has clinical competence that should put him on par with his older peers (that is the point of all that prolonged training). But in addition to his medical training he has dabbled in computers, informatics and political activism.

    He may seem like a juggernaut, but I’d expect my Surgeon General to be more mature, experienced and seasoned.

    • The current POTUS hasn’t really been known to nominate qualified individuals to appointed positions….

  18. From his Wikipedia page:

    “He then attended college at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in three years with a bachelors degree in Biochemical Sciences.[5] Murthy received an MD from Yale School of Medicine and an MBA in Health Care Management from Yale School of Management in 2003.[6] He completed his residency in Internal Medicine in 2006 from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.[7]”

    So, as I said, a typical Indian kid who was pushed to excel academically – and did so.
    He’s been out of med school for 11 years and out of specialty training for 8.

    Surgeon general?
    I don’t think so.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Murthy

    • I don’t doubt that the guy is bright. It’s hard to graduate with honors, especially ahead of schedule. Still, I’m not all that impressed, either, and wouldn’t appoint him, even his anti-firearms freedom bigotry aside.

      I’m not seeing any evidence he’s actually lived life, done any serious thinking, or accomplished much in the way of real impact. I’m just seeing a lot of book work, test taking, and resume padding.

      He reminds me of people who will go to law school, for example, but then never seriously practice law. Instead, they try to be pundits or media types or so-called community organizers. Whatever that is. They just want the elite credential, the golden ticket, that gives them access into the mandarin world of highly educated know-nothings, like some kind of Ivy League Veruca Salt.

      These are the people who somehow keep baffling others with b.s. and keep gaining power over those of us who actually create and build and work for a living.

    • From ARFCOM link behind picture:

      “This was just so cool! Dr. Rand Paul wanted to shoot my STG556 w/can at our Spring ARFcom shoot at Knob Creek.
      I just had to share the pics. He is a kick ass gun guy. He took the time to come out to our shoot.”

      Or also what Burke said.

      Interesting guns, those. I think if I sprung for a bullpup that particular example would be first on the list, besides the RJF ZK-22 that never arrived due to paperwork errors.

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