-Caveat Lector-
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPrint.asp?Page=\Commentary\archive\200103\COM20010327f.html
Doctors and the 2nd Amendment
By Dan Palm and Timothy Wheeler
CNS Commentary
March 27, 2001
The lead article in the March 21 edition of the New York Observer described a
new effort by the New York medical community "to inject itself into the
national debate on gun violence."
Led by Dr. Jeremiah Barondess, Doctors Against Handgun Injury (DAHI)
proposes furthering nationwide gun regulation, including background checks at
gun shows, limits on the number of gun purchases, and waiting periods for
buyers.
More significantly, DAHI proposes that, as a routine matter, doctors should
question their patients about firearms in their homes, and lecture gun owners
about the risks associated with gun ownership.
"To promote public safety," says a DAHI report, "health professionals and
health systems should ask about firearm ownership when taking a medical
history or engaging in preventive counseling."
Claremont Institute supporters and members will recognize this as merely the
latest in an ongoing effort by the anti- gun movement to enlist physicians and
medical professionals.
An Institute project, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, has been
spearheading the
response to this attack since 1994. The core of DRGO's message: private
ownership of firearms is not only consistent with the political principles of
liberty
and equality, it's also sound public policy and, yes, even sound public health
policy.
So why shouldn't your doctor follow routine questions about your smoking,
drinking, or exercise habits with questions about guns in your home?
First, most gun owners are well aware of the dangers posed by firearms, and
take precautions with guns as with any other dangerous device or tool. Had it
bothered to check, DAHI would know that pro-Second Amendment
organizations such as the National Rifle Association have emphasized safe
storage and handling practices above all else, and sunk millions of dollars into
the effort for years. DAHI is proposing that doctors do something that the
NRA has been doing for over a century.
Second, the data don't support the claim that injury and death from firearms
is
so great that they should be singled out by doctors. The anti-gun movement
tends to convey the impression that firearms in the home are a leading cause
of
accidental death and injury.
In fact, Centers for Disease Control statistics indicate that firearms are rather
far down the roster: deaths and injuries from swimming pools and falls from
ladders annually outnumber those from firearms. Accidental firearm deaths
have been declining steadily for nearly 100 years and are now at an all-time
low.
Why, then, don't these same doctors propose asking whether you have a fence
around your pool, or whether you exercise caution when climbing a ladder?
The answer is that DAHI and similar anti-gun organizations have a clear
political agenda, and whatever they might claim, you can bet it's not supportive
of private gun ownership.
Worst of all, DAHI proposes that doctors give patients a one-dimensional view
of firearms. "Getting shot and being dead is certainly a clinical issue," says
Dr.
Barondess. If so, then presumably getting stabbed, raped or beaten to death are,
too, clinical issues.
What if there existed a medical device or tool that could quite effectively
prevent a weaker person from being stabbed, raped or beaten by a stronger
one? Might not that tool be considered a boon to public health?
There is now significant, well-documented evidence to show that firearms in the
home or carried concealed amount to just such a tool, and are a net health
benefit. Statistics from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) by the
Census Bureau indicate that at minimum 65,000 crimes are stopped or
prevented annually by armed citizens, usually without a shot fired.
Thirteen other studies estimate that far more crimes -- between 764,000 and
several million -- are thwarted by men and women with their own firearms.
To ignore data like this while focusing only on the many fewer deaths caused
by firearms -- accidental or criminal -- is like a physician mentioning only
the
undesirable side effects of a drug that occurs for a few, ignoring its good overall
effects.
If Dr. Barondess and DAHI wish to offer counsel about firearms ownership,
it's disingenuous of them to present their patients with only one side of the
story.
Doctors -- professionals accustomed to carefully collecting, comparing and
analyzing data and making judgments from it -- should recognize the biased road
that DAHI is taking.
The vast majority of American gun owners are law-abiding, and they don't need
their doctor to hector them about a right guaranteed by the Constitution, and
a
tool many use for protection of their own person and family.
(Dan Palm is a professor of government at Azusa Pacific University and a
senior fellow of The Claremont Institute. Dr. Timothy Wheeler is director of
DRGO.)
Copyright 2001, The Claremont Institute
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