Most Americans have strong feelings about gun control, whether in favor of more or less. Legislation has even been passed restricting physicians from discussing guns with patients. What is your opinion about healthcare professionals discussing safekeeping of guns in the home?
Gun ownership and regulation is a very emotional issue in the U.S. and there has been strong reaction to whether physicians and other healthcare providers should be involved in doing more to curb gun related injuries and deaths. I would like to hear some of your opinions regarding physician involvement, but first let's look at some of the gun statistics in the U.S.
More than 108,000 people are shot per year in murders, assaults, suicides, suicide attempts, unintentional shootings or by police intervention.
* More than 32,000 of them die.
* The U.S. has the most gun homicides of any developed nation. 29.7 per 100,000.
* Everyday 297 people are shot.
* 89 people die.
* 31 of them are murdered.
* 55 are suicides.
* 2 are killed unintentionally.
* 1 is killed by police.
* 1 is unknown intent.
* One in five deaths are people ages 15-29.
Over 17,000 American children and teens are injured or killed each year due to gun violence.
* 2,677 of those children die.
* Nearly 48 youth are shot per day including 7 fatalities.
* 5 are murdered and 2 are suicides.
1 in 3 homes with children have guns.
* 42% of parents with guns keep at least one unlocked.
* 25% of parents with guns keep at least loaded.
* 3 in 4 children know where firearms are kept in the home.
(Statistics; bradycampaign.org).
It has been suggested that clinicians could play a major role in reducing children's access to guns by asking if there is a gun in the home, and if so, counseling on firearm storage practices. One study showed that patients who received counseling on firearm storage were more likely to make a change in storage practice than patients who did not receive counseling. (64% vs 33%). (J Am Board Fam.Pract).
Pediatrician's offices and hospitals routinely give out infant and car seats, would it also be appropriate to distribute trigger locks and lockboxes? Firearm related injuries are a public health issue, so should there be public health initiatives regarding firearms such as there have been for reducing tobacco, toy and motor vehicle related deaths?
Protected how? That statement makes absolutely no sense in terms of a healthcare related question about firearms in the home.
When and if I am asked that question .. the health care provider has no right to know. My right to own a weapon is personal.
Let's say I offer the information that I have a 9mm Glock in my home...what exactly is the person obtaining this personal information going to do with it?
Incompetent handling of guns in the home exposes children to significant risk of accidental injury or death. A large part of the responsibility of a pediatric practitioner is to address accident prevention and risk reduction. (The same can be said of just about any area of healthcare, especially psych. But the concern is especially keen in peds.)
These kinds of questions are one possible approach to the issue, but not the only one available in a healthcare setting. But, instead of trying to find alternative ways to reduce the threat to children's safety, we pass a law against asking the question.
Sweeping a threat under the rug like that seems pretty boneheaded to me.
If the questions were being asked in a purely clinical fashion then I would agree with you.
Unfortunately a few who wanted to interject their political ideology and personal personal culture ruined it.
Don't blame those who were the victims of overzealous political ideology and personal culture being pushed on them, blame the healthcare practitioners who crossed the professional boundary.
I agree. I still don't think they should have access to guns.
To be educated at a range with an adult or something is one thing. To have a gun out in the open with kids there is another.
A lot of people can be so careless. I knew someone who would have loaded guns out in the open with a baby crawling around, that's no longer the case after everyone told him how mindless he was. Ugh careless.
But growing up I was exposed to guns and showed proper way to clean them (my dad was a hunter), they were all in cases but without a lock(why?!??).
As an adult I hate the idea of guns, the scare me, but it's there to use it if I ever had to (on a human, because animals are friends not food). A few years ago my drug dealer neighbor decided to bring his drama in my driveway and start shooting, instead of grabbing the gun I ran to the bathroom locked the door and called my dad(yeah before the cops). In situations like this I wish I was more prepared with a gun just in case they decided to come into my home, instead I was crying in the bathroom.
Interesting - people get all thin in the nose over government intrusion, then pass a law mandating government intrusion in order to avoid the indignity of being personally responsible for their children's safety. Hilarious.
Are you assuming that all gun owners follow a particular political ideology and that they do not take responsibility for their children's safety and it is an indignity to be asked about gun ownership?
I find your statement hilarious and somewhat justifies the concerns of patients that their healthcare provider will unprofessionally interject their own political ideology and personal culture into the relationship.
I may be wrong but I am pretty sure we are supposed to be the advocates for our patients, not their betters.
Are you assuming that all gun owners follow a particular political ideology and that they do not take responsibility for their children's safety and it is an indignity to be asked about gun ownership?
I find your statement hilarious and somewhat justifies the concerns of patients that their healthcare provider will unprofessionally interject their own political ideology and personal culture into the relationship.
I may be wrong but I am pretty sure we are supposed to be the advocates for our patients, not their betters.
Your first paragraph - the indignity part- has been what we've seen in this thread as responses. So, yes.
Your first paragraph - the indignity part- has been what we've seen in this thread as responses. So, yes.
I guess one can infer that from a few responses on an internet forum for nurses and apply it throughout the country to their patients.
My issue with this thread is that there is a difference between "should we ask a question" and whether the answer to the question is right or wrong.
There are strong beliefs on either side of the political spectrum but as nurses our role isn't to tell the patient what they should believe but rather to be their healthcare advocate and support the decisions they make.
I can see why people do not want to be asked politically sensitive questions because it is all too easy for the healthcare provider to cross that professional boundary from healthcare assessment and support to judgement and scorn.
The reason why there are laws banning the question in some states is the same reason why HIV related questions and information release is so regulated. Too many unprofessional people jump that professional boundary.
Are you assuming that all gun owners follow a particular political ideology and that they do not take responsibility for their children's safety and it is an indignity to be asked about gun ownership?
I find your statement hilarious and somewhat justifies the concerns of patients that their healthcare provider will unprofessionally interject their own political ideology and personal culture into the relationship.
I may be wrong but I am pretty sure we are supposed to be the advocates for our patients, not their betters.
To answer your question, no, I don't think all gun owners share the same political ideology. I was stating my opinion of the ideology expressed by a preponderance of the posts I read on this thread. I'm well aware that the participants in this thread are not "all gun owners". So, your assumption is wrong.
I disagree that discussing gun safety necessarily means I have a superiority complex, either. Without getting too lengthy here, I envision the question as a way of opening up a conversation. Not everyone will want or need more info, but most parents I know are at least mildly interested in risk-reduction. If nothing else, an otherwise oblivious family member might keep a closer eye on where that toddler got to, if only for a while.
I think a practice could do some really interesting things in partnership with local resouces, too - veteran's groups, gun dealers, sporting clubs, etc.
In short, information-sharing and preaching are two very different things. Handled properly, it could be lifesaving.
Answer the question or not, however you want. But threatening physical assault for asking it is a bully move - a stupid bully move. Passing a law against asking it increases the threat to the children in the community onpurpose - how is that not bat guano crazy?
1. It started with an AAP policy endorsing pediatricians asking these questions.
2. Then, when some patients in Florida declined to answer, some overzealous pediatricians dismissed them from their practices. Additionally, some of these physicians were rather rabid gun control fanatics and took advantage of the AAP policy to push their own personal agenda.
3. Constituents complained to their legislators and the Florida law was the result.
4. The publicity from the Florida situation resulted in similar laws being passed in some other states.
So you see, it had nothing to do with "delicate sensibilities" and everything to do with a violation of their constitutional rights to privacy and being discriminated against for exercising those rights.
It would have been so much simpler and there would have been no problem if instead of demanding answers to firearm ownership questions, physicians would simply state to all patients that unsecured firearms in the home are a known potential hazard to children, offer them a pamphlet on how to secure firearms safely, and offer to answer any questions they might have.
Doing it this way accomplishes exactly the same goal they espouse of "educating patients about firearm safety", without invading the patient's privacy.
It would seem to me that any physician or HCW that would refuse to accept this approach and still insist on the patient answering an ownership question either has a demigod complex or some other ulterior motive.
Regardless of what they may think, physicians and other health care workers do not have any legal right to any information that the patient does not choose to share.
So if asking about guns is an invasion of privacy, and it overrides any potential benefits of discussing gun safety, should I also refrain from asking about domestic violence, alcohol consumption, smoking, and drug use? Those are also very personal issues and people may think they are being judged about their choices and behaviors.
I still don't get the outrage. What is so special about guns that there are laws passed about me asking about them in a private, confidential interaction? It's ok to risk our childrens' safety so we don't offend some people? SMH......
Been there,done that, ASN, RN
7,241 Posts
When and if I am asked that question .. the health care provider has no right to know. My right to own a weapon is personal.
Let's say I offer the information that I have a 9mm Glock in my home...what exactly is the person obtaining this personal information going to do with it?