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?
We have guns in out house. I just bought a handgun and am getting my CC in January of this year. I will NOT be a sitting duck in a massacre. I've already practiced loading and shooting and I am prepared. I would LOVE to see a similar comment from my daughter's teacher, but the unfortunate truth is that the most vulnerable places, schools and hospitals is where I spend most of my time and where I cannot carry. All I can do is pray that my daughter has a safe day,.
maybe we should be more worried about mental health services in this country??
This is a red herring. People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims than to harm anyone. In fact, the focus on mental illness in the wake of gun crime is merely a way to deflect away from the real issue and blame an already heavily stigmatized group of people rather than addressing the real underlying issue. In the US only about 3-5% of gun crimes involve a mentally ill shooter, according to researchers at the London School of Economics and, separately, these folks:
Yet surprisingly little population-level evidence supports the notion that individuals diagnosed with mental illness are more likely than anyone else to commit gun crimes. According to Appelbaum,25 less than 3% to 5% of US crimes involve people with mental illness, and the percentages of crimes that involve guns are lower than the national average for persons not diagnosed with mental illness. Databases that track gun homicides, such as the National Center for Health Statistics, similarly show that fewer than 5% of the 120 000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness.26
It's reasonable, I think, to question the sanity of someone involved in a mass shooting. However, when we begin to make mental illness a requisite of committing violent crime we necessarily skew the conversation in order to avoid having a more difficult one. Or, as John Oliver said, "Perhaps the clearest sign of just how little we want to talk about mental health is that one of the only times it's actively brought up is, as we've seen yet again this week, in the aftermath of a mass shooting as a means of steering the conversation away from gun control."
The statistics tell us that mass murderers are often single, socially isolated men with a preoccupation with guns. And yet, to quote Duke University psychiatrist Jeffrey Swanson, "A 2001 study looked specifically at 34 adolescent mass murderers, all male. 70 percent were described as a loner. 61.5 percent had problems with substance abuse. 48 percent had preoccupations with weapons; 43.5 percent had been victims of bullying. Only 23 percent had a documented psychiatric history of any kind―which means three out of four did not."
The last time we had this debate was in the 1960s, but then we were blaming black culture for the now seemingly standard fear of the angry black man. It was this racial motivation that led to the Gun Control Act of 1968. Now we've moved on to another marginalized group to blame for gun violence... as long as the shooter is white. If a shooter is black we still tend to blame black culture, Islam, etc.
In fact, even the idea of mentally ill people as violent has only existed since the 1960s. Prior to that schizophrenia was characterized as a disorder marked by social and emotional withdrawal.
then you define the word differently than most persons i know, at least in health care.
No it isn't, unless you're talking about legal/psychiatric competence to consent to/refuse treatment, which we weren't. We're talking about where gun-owners rights stop and children's right to life begin.
The word has multiple meanings. I am using it in the sense of lack of knowledge/skill/judgement needed to handle a gun responsibly.
This is a red herring. People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims than to harm anyone. In fact, the focus on mental illness in the wake of gun crime is merely a way to deflect away from the real issue and blame an already heavily stigmatized group of people rather than addressing the real underlying issue. In the US only about 3-5% of gun crimes involve a mentally ill shooter, according to researchers at the London School of Economics and, separately, these folks:
It's reasonable, I think, to question the sanity of someone involved in a mass shooting. However, when we begin to make mental illness a requisite of committing violent crime we necessarily skew the conversation in order to avoid having a more difficult one. Or, as John Oliver said, "Perhaps the clearest sign of just how little we want to talk about mental health is that one of the only times it's actively brought up is, as we've seen yet again this week, in the aftermath of a mass shooting as a means of steering the conversation away from gun control."
The statistics tell us that mass murderers are often single, socially isolated men with a preoccupation with guns. And yet, to quote Duke University psychiatrist Jeffrey Swanson, "A 2001 study looked specifically at 34 adolescent mass murderers, all male. 70 percent were described as a loner. 61.5 percent had problems with substance abuse. 48 percent had preoccupations with weapons; 43.5 percent had been victims of bullying. Only 23 percent had a documented psychiatric history of any kind―which means three out of four did not."
The last time we had this debate was in the 1960s, but then we were blaming black culture for the now seemingly standard fear of the angry black man. It was this racial motivation that led to the Gun Control Act of 1968. Now we've moved on to another marginalized group to blame for gun violence... as long as the shooter is white. If a shooter is black we still tend to blame black culture, Islam, etc.
In fact, even the idea of mentally ill people as violent has only existed since the 1960s. Prior to that schizophrenia was characterized as a disorder marked by social and emotional withdrawal.
"Put another way, perhaps psychiatric expertise might be put to better use by enhancing US discourse about the complex anxieties, social and economic formations, and blind assumptions that make people fear each other in the first place. Psychiatry could help society interrogate what guns mean to everyday people, and why people feel they need guns or reject guns out of hand. By addressing gun discord as symptomatic of deeper concerns, psychiatry could, ideally, promote more meaningful public conversations on the impact of guns on civic life. And it could join with public health researchers, community activists, law enforcement officers, or business leaders to identify and address the underlying structural116 and infrastructural117 issues that foster real or imagined notions of mortal fear."
No it isn't, unless you're talking about legal/psychiatric competence to consent to/refuse treatment, which we weren't.
And I would just clarify further that that meaning of "competence" is a legal term, not a medical/psychiatric term. Psychiatry does not talk about people's "competence" or "incompetence."
I don't see anything wrong with asking this question. My friend who does home hospice has been asking this for years. When I still worked bedside it was a routine admission question right along with "do you have stairs at home?" and "do you feel safe in your home environment?" If pt's answered yes to these questions, we triggered the correct consults-physical therapy and/or social work.
The odd thing I find about this debate whenever it pops up is responsible gun owners make the assumption that ALL gun owners adhere to the same guidelines and safety practices as they do.
ClaraRedheart, BSN, RN
363 Posts
We have guns in out house. I just bought a handgun and am getting my CC in January of this year. I will NOT be a sitting duck in a massacre. I've already practiced loading and shooting and I am prepared. I would LOVE to see a similar comment from my daughter's teacher, but the unfortunate truth is that the most vulnerable places, schools and hospitals is where I spend most of my time and where I cannot carry. All I can do is pray that my daughter has a safe day,.