By John Crump
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- An article by UC Davis emergency department physician, Garen Wintemute, in the Annals of Internal Medicine is calling on primary care physicians to confront their patients over guns that they might own. Dr. Garen Wintemute is a gun control advocate who believes that doctors should counsel their patients on firearms. He considers himself a “gun violence” expert.
Dr. Garen Wintemute came to this conclusion by what he considers inaction by Congress and the Whitehouse. According to Dr. Wintemute these bodies of government, “have abdicated their responsibility on this complex and pressing problem as on so many others.” Dr. Garen came to fame by multiple articles trying to link gun ownership and violent tendencies.
He calls for doctors to hold interventions with their patients over their firearms. This intervention would include such intrusive question as of where ammunition and guns store and informing the patient of firearm death statistics. Dr. Wintemute likens firearm ownership to smoking in that the first time to doctors urge their patients to quit smoking they usually do not, but over time the pressure might cause them to abandon the habit.
According to Dr. Wintemute, doctors should address these conversations as a caring doctor by saying such things as “If you’re going to be effective you have to be able to say, ‘I’m asking you this because I care,’ ” He stresses doctors should frame the questions in a way not to offend the patient.
Dr. Wintemute, in the past, has applauded the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision over Florida’s Privacy of Firearm Owners Act. This act would have prevented doctors from asking their patients about their guns. In the court decision, it was ruled in a 10-1 majority decision that the statute would have violated the first amendment rights of the doctors.
What is disturbing is what Dr. Wintemute list as warning signs of gun violence. These include such things as acute injury, a difficult diagnosis, a job loss, or having an impulsive teenager, children or impaired adults living the same home as the gun owner. Since most people have been through one or more of these scenarios, it would mean almost everyone is susceptible to gun violence.
Dr. Wintemute believes that a lot of doctors have reached a personal tipping point with the tragedy in Las Vegas. He wrote, “I frequently hear from physicians who have reached a personal tipping point and decided to stay on the sidelines no longer.” He also stated that they would not be acting alone in their crusade. He urged doctors to band together to combat gun violence.
Dr. Wintemute has asked all primary care physicians to sign a pledge stating that they will talk to their patients about firearms. He also encourages doctors to email, call, and push their colleagues to sign the pledge. According to Dr. Wintemute, they will use the list to distribute aids that will help doctors confront their patients on guns.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on the history of the patriot movement and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss or at www.crumpy.com.
When my doctor asks me if I own guns I’m going to ask her if she owns dildos? And if she says it’s non of my Business I’ll tell her the same of her question.
Perhaps, before urging doctors to pledge to engage in “professional discussion” on topics in which they have no professional competence, which is unethical according to AMA standards, he should be urging doctors who wish to engage in such discussions to take some NRA shooting classes, and become knowledgeable about guns and competent in the safe handling, storage, etc. of guns before doing so. I wonder why he is urging them to behave unethically instead? If my doctor asked me about my guns, I think I’d look over the diplomas on his wall, and ask where the NRA certifications were. In… Read more »
About 25 years ago U.S. Health Care use to send out an evaluation sheet with a franked return envelop to evaluate the doctors at the visit. They actually looked into some of doctor wrong doing, and pursued it. Since then whatever plan I have had the rates have gone up 3 to 38 percent a year. Doctors continuously falsify their records and put in false billing codes to jack the visit bill up, and when the time is taken to report them nothing is done (mind you, it is not all doctors but a substantial number of them). The doctor… Read more »
The clinic I use asked that question some years ago . . . it was gone in months, because most patients refused to answer.
My doctor said that patients he knew to own guns and patients he knew didn’t alike were refusing to answer because it was none of the doctors’ business.
He said the only time it became the doctor’s business was if there were warnings of suicidal or homicidal behavior, and simply owning a gun was not such.
And this is coming from the people who started the opioid epidemic? It is not the distributors or manufacturers who WRITE the prescriptions, but the physicians, and they want to ask about guns. They need to get their own house in order before they start asking about other people business. True irony
I would answer that question as, “Yes, Doc, I have plenty of tools in my home and I know how to use them, store them, and keep them well maintained for a rainy day”. Evasive, yet thought provoking.