Back in November, I wrote a post about physicians asking their patients about guns. Personally, I don't believe the subject belongs in a doctor's office, unless it's behind the patient's current medical need.

Why would a physician ask a patient if he has a gun in the house? Is the physician a gun expert who's going to give the patient instructions on how to deal with his gun? Could it possibly be that the patient actually knows how to take care of his gun, and doesn't need the prying questions of someone who probably does not even own a gun himself, and only knows what he's been told, or read, about them? What place does that have in medicine?

Now, I don't believe that a law should be passed to prevent physicians from asking that sort of question, because they should have the right to ask anything they'd like ...

But that said, I have to wonder if the physician who would ask his patients about guns would assign the same importance to inquiring about other things which are even more commonly found in homes, and which cause even more accidents than guns do: stoves, bath tubs, cleaning chemicals, prescription medications ... to name a few. Are they going to ask about those too?

When someone asks me if I own a gun, and then go on to lecture me about my gun ownership, I see that person with new eyes - where I once saw a clerk, or a doctor, or a teacher ... I now see a political activist.

There are some arenas that politics isn't welcome, in my opinion, and one of those is when I'm talking to my doctor.

Don't you think doctors are really just trying to prevent death? It's weird that people who would want less governmental control over guns could also want government to criminalize the act of inquiring about guns. Which is it, less governmental oversight or more? (I happen to support the right to bear arms as well as the right to ask any medically relevant question. Why does the government have to be responsible for everything?)

If you remove the "g" word here ("f" word, if you like), there are plenty of topics that would be rather offbeat or inappropriate to come up in a physician's office (eg, asking your child patient's parents about their sex life), but that doesn't mean they should be criminalized.
More appropriate for review by a medical licensing board, so that they could properly find out the doctor's rationale for this line of questioning.

If someone felt strongly about this from a public health point-of-view, perhaps posting a public service announcement in the waiting room about locking up firearms would suffice.

What shames me the most about this is that the story comes from the Commonwealth of Virginia, which was the first American colony too enact a bill of rights.

I lived in Virginia for 11 years and can't believe they would be so stupid.

I discuss this topic further on my own website.

"A pediatrician who asks a child's parent about firearms in their home could lose his or her license or be disciplined"

In Massachusetts, we are required by law to report any case in which we think a child is endamgered. I would consider an unlocked gun in a household a child at risk. If we don't report such things to child protective services we can lose our medical license. I would much rather lose my job for reporting gun ownership then pronounce a 2 year old dead of a gunshot wound, which I have done.

You doctors are crazed Stalinist busybodies guided by ideology not fact or science. (Surprise--given slim percentages of medical practice that is based on real evidence, it seems obvious you docs prefer the authority of science, not its discipline.) In any case, guns really pose a tiny risk to children. Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame examined this, finding pools are 100x more dangerous to children.


http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/news/79388.php

Question Anon4.57: do you report parents with pools to protective services, you really should.

As this comment thread shows, the world is full of doctor ideologues ready to report gun owners, regardless of the true risk to human life. We need protection from such zealots in white coats!

I you are just asking depressed patients if they have access to a gun, you are making a mistake. The correct question to ask is, "Do you have any specific plans to kill yourself?" Firearms are one of the most common successful methods of suicide in the US, but drug overdose is by far, far the most common method of an attempt.

The problem with asking about guns, from a medical standpoint as a risk to depressed patients and to children, is that it skews the relative risk. A child is far more likely to die from choking or from drowning in a swimming pool. Even a stairway represents a greater risk of serious injury than a handgun.

"didn't Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics fame show that a house with pool is 100x more dangerous than a house with gun. Do you report all patient that have pools to protective services? If you're answer is no, then you are an ideological, ignorant hack."

We ask about safe homes in general and protective services does an evaluation of the entire home for safety issues. There's no politics involved. I could care less if anyone owns a gun, my dad had a gun, he just didn't leave it out.

I agree with the above poster. It is not any Drs. business who owns guns (unless you think you have p***** someone off so much they might come after you).

It's really not even your business if you are treating a gunshot victim. I assume the police and detectives and all other types of professionals get invloved with that, isn't that their job?

I thought your jobs were to treat victims not investigate crimes!!!