NRA-ILA | Limits on Doctors: Guns in Home Not Relevant
http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/in-the-news/2014/9/limits-on-doctors-guns-in-home-not-relevant.aspx
Limits on Doctors: Guns in Home Not Relevant
http://www.theledger.com/article/20140913/EDIT01/140919746/1036/edit03?p=all&tc=pgall
THE LEDGER
Published: Saturday, September 13, 2014 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 12, 2014 at 11:54 p.m.
Picture this: You've never been arrested for anything. You don't even have a
speeding ticket or accident on your record. You've never had to call the police or appear in court, other than to serve as a juror. You are the model citizen.
Now add this to the picture you're painting: You take your 8-year-old daughter to the pediatrician for a routine physical. Nothing's wrong. Nothing's happened.
Just routine stuff: Check height and weight. Look down the throat and in the ears. Poke a little here and prod a little there.
And then, to you: Do you have any guns in your house? Guns? What does that have to do with my child's health? you wonder.
You are not alone.
In late July, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction in the "Docs vs. Glocks" case that, for a time, allowed doctors to ask people whether they had guns in their homes.
That injunction came on an appeal from doctors after the Florida Legislature passed, and Gov. Rick Scott signed, a 2011 law that discouraged doctors from asking such questions unless they were relevant to a patient's health.
Violation of the Firearm Owners' Privacy Act could trigger penalties ranging from fines to revocation of a doctor's license to practice.
The majority opinion in the 2-1 ruling said the law, backed by the National Rifle Association, "has only an incidental effect on physicians' speech."
As it stands now, doctors cannot ask questions about gun ownership.
But they have once again appealed the ruling, this time to the full 11th Circuit.
They have support from gun-control advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which was "astounded" by the ruling.
"It's a sad day when judges tell doctors what is in the best interest of their patients," executive director Howard Simon said in a statement.
In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Charles Wilson wrote that the law puts a "gag order" on physicians.
We say: Gag away.
Under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, people have a right to bear arms.
Responsible adults know how to use their weapons and understand why they should keep locks on them to protect their children.
Doctors have no right to ask whether adults in a home own guns.
What happens to those who don't want to answer?
Do the doctors deny them or their children care?
What about those who just don't think it's a doctor's place to ask such a question — will they lie?
Will a doctor then show up at their house one day, wanting to do a search?
The fact that doctors ever had this right is absurd. It's not their business.
It's no one's business.
Doctors and their organizations, the ACLU and everyone else who has joined this appeal, or plans to, should stop wasting everyone's time and money and let this law stand.
http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/in-the-news/2014/9/limits-on-doctors-guns-in-home-not-relevant.aspx
Limits on Doctors: Guns in Home Not Relevant
http://www.theledger.com/article/20140913/EDIT01/140919746/1036/edit03?p=all&tc=pgall
THE LEDGER
Published: Saturday, September 13, 2014 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 12, 2014 at 11:54 p.m.
Picture this: You've never been arrested for anything. You don't even have a
speeding ticket or accident on your record. You've never had to call the police or appear in court, other than to serve as a juror. You are the model citizen.
Now add this to the picture you're painting: You take your 8-year-old daughter to the pediatrician for a routine physical. Nothing's wrong. Nothing's happened.
Just routine stuff: Check height and weight. Look down the throat and in the ears. Poke a little here and prod a little there.
And then, to you: Do you have any guns in your house? Guns? What does that have to do with my child's health? you wonder.
You are not alone.
In late July, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction in the "Docs vs. Glocks" case that, for a time, allowed doctors to ask people whether they had guns in their homes.
That injunction came on an appeal from doctors after the Florida Legislature passed, and Gov. Rick Scott signed, a 2011 law that discouraged doctors from asking such questions unless they were relevant to a patient's health.
Violation of the Firearm Owners' Privacy Act could trigger penalties ranging from fines to revocation of a doctor's license to practice.
The majority opinion in the 2-1 ruling said the law, backed by the National Rifle Association, "has only an incidental effect on physicians' speech."
As it stands now, doctors cannot ask questions about gun ownership.
But they have once again appealed the ruling, this time to the full 11th Circuit.
They have support from gun-control advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which was "astounded" by the ruling.
"It's a sad day when judges tell doctors what is in the best interest of their patients," executive director Howard Simon said in a statement.
In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Charles Wilson wrote that the law puts a "gag order" on physicians.
We say: Gag away.
Under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, people have a right to bear arms.
Responsible adults know how to use their weapons and understand why they should keep locks on them to protect their children.
Doctors have no right to ask whether adults in a home own guns.
What happens to those who don't want to answer?
Do the doctors deny them or their children care?
What about those who just don't think it's a doctor's place to ask such a question — will they lie?
Will a doctor then show up at their house one day, wanting to do a search?
The fact that doctors ever had this right is absurd. It's not their business.
It's no one's business.
Doctors and their organizations, the ACLU and everyone else who has joined this appeal, or plans to, should stop wasting everyone's time and money and let this law stand.
