Breitbart – by Dr. Susan Berry
A pediatric emergency medicine physician is urging doctors to join the effort for gun control by asking about gun ownership while performing health histories on their patients.
A panel titled “The Tipping Point: Activating a Public Health Movement to Address Gun Violence” was featured at the American Public Health Association (APHA)’s 2015 annual meeting in Chicago earlier in November. The panel called for a view of gun violence as a public health emergency situation.
Dr. Eric Fleegler of Boston Children’s Hospital – a member of the panel – echoed statistics from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence during his presentation.
“One in five deaths in young people ages 15 to 29 are from firearms — a stunning number,” said Fleegler, as Medscape reports. “If these were deaths due to cancer, we would find this outrageous.”
Fleegler was a research principal in a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine titled “Firearm Legislation and Firearm-Related Fatalities in the United States,” which concluded:
A higher number of firearm laws in a state are associated with a lower rate of firearm fatalities in the state, overall and for suicides and homicides individually. As our study could not determine cause-and-effect relationships, further studies are necessary to define the nature of this association.
During the APHA meeting, Fleegler said that despite his study’s findings, since the December 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, most state firearm laws have loosened gun control. Medscape reports that Fleegler’s statement “elicited murmurs of disbelief from the audience.”
As Breitbart News reported Friday, however, as of November 23, 2015, for example, the city of Chicago – which has severely restrictive gun control laws – has experienced 2,703 shootings resulting in 440 deaths, representing an increase of about 400 shootings over the same time last year.
“It is worth noting that while this violence proves the impotency of gun control in general, it is especially damning when juxtaposed with some of the most recent gun control endeavors in particular,” writes Breitbart News’ AWR Hawkins.
During his panel discussion, Fleegler asserted that in nearly half of households that have both a child and a gun, the gun is stored improperly. He urged “a more concentrated approach across the country” to cut the rate of gun-related injuries, a statement that reportedly drew applause from the audience.
Fleegler explained his view that doctors can play a primary role in reducing children’s access to guns.
“Pediatric offices often give out infant and child car seats. We could do this with gun lockboxes and trigger locks,” he said.
Fleegler added that, according to recent research published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice, patient counseling in the doctor’s office about proper firearm storage was more likely to lead to a safe change in gun storage.
To encourage a public health approach to gun violence, Fleegler recommends that clinicians ask about gun ownership while taking patient health histories in their offices. He also calls for increased firearm legislation, including laws related to safe storage, trigger locks, and criminal background checks for all gun purchases.
Fleegler also urges that firearms be regulated as a consumer product – and thus regulated by consumer safety laws – and said an increase in the amount of data collection performed on gun-related fatalities and firearm sales would assist with more funding for firearm-related research.
According to the Medscape report, when one audience member expressed a need to change the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Fleegler responded, “I don’t think we need to change the Constitution, we just need to change how we use guns. We want to make them safe.”
“It’s insane that firearms are not regulated, considering the number of people who are maimed and killed by guns,” he told Medscape. “Teddy bears are regulated.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics endorses gun control. Its official position on firearms asserts that the absence of firearms in homes and communities is “the most effective measure to prevent suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm-related injuries.”
“One in five deaths in young people ages 15 to 29 are from firearms — a stunning number,” said Fleegler, as Medscape reports. “If these were deaths due to cancer, we would find this outrageous.”
State your source, so we can verify what other state funded liberal has skewed your stats in your favor? (The number ain’t even 1 in 5)
So what are the other 4? Car Accidents?
Ouch, they are, aren’t they!!!!
Any proposal banning cars or forced changes make their usage more safe?
Sucking statistics. Put light on what you want to abuse, and keep in the dark what is inconvenient to your cause.
Beside messing into the privacy of other peoples lives, under some official flag, this should be one of them Un-American Activities. Lying with false stats, could be considered a sin for some. So why believe them?
my daughter solved this with her pediatrician ,, she told the lady.. “I dont own any , Im a kid “.. in her words .. so the Dr. started asking if her parents had any .. so my kid says to her .. “I was taught manners and not to talk about other peoples information, if you want to ask my parents something personal you should be asking them, not me , im just a kid ”
granted she was about 14 at this time and shes homeschooled , so she knows the gig .. but it sure shut down this Bitch Dr.
and now, this Dr just lost a long term patient
I told her she went about it all wrong with me by grilling my kid , and I felt this was an act of undermining my parenting and wouldn’t be tolerated
I also told her it was none of her dam business if i had any guns, and shouldnt be asking my kid ..If i did or if i didnt .. so she still isnt sure about my ownership and my kid no longer goes there
You are spot on “Enemy of the State”….. I work in health care. When you are being questioned by a health professional, REMEMBER they are now a government representative!!!….. Everything you say is being documented in the computer system and NEVER goes away. Guns in the house?, do you drink a lot? does your daddy ever hurt you or yell at you?, Does daddy yell at mommy?
Talking to health professionals is now like going into a police station and answering questions for 1/2 hour. NO ONE WOULD DO THAT!!!
YOU ARE WARNED!
“I also told her it was none of her dam business if i had any guns, and shouldnt be asking my kid ..If i did or if i didnt .. so she still isnt sure about my ownership”
Great kid. However, you do realize that you are in the database, just because you make a point of hiding whether you have something to hide or not.. (If it was my Dbase, I would red flag anything, BUT an admission of at least 2 sources that there aren’t guns, neither the probability of guns.. Added to that the (Official) FACT whether you ever HAD a background check (Successful or not.)… Ever spend any money in a gun store (Banks, Parallel investigation.) and whether ANY of your circle (Friends) has guns. Thinking that it works any different or less efficient in determining who has guns, doesn’t make it so. You start the Dbase with the whole population (Census.), and then start limiting who is part of the domain of whom you can prove that ain’t part of it.
How does that song go? “Don’t ask me no questions, and I won’t tell you no lies…”
Not that Big Brother doesn’t already know who all the gun owners are. That’s why all the talk we often hear about “boating accidents” is silly. Anyone who says that to the soldiers and police enforcing gun confiscation is just going to get beaten (or worse) until he tells where the guns are hidden, after which he’ll be shot. Besides, once things have gotten to that point, there will be NO excuse to be hiding those guns rather than bugging out and using them.
this is one of many reasons, that the HAM people stay in Yuma and other southern areas in winter (besides the nice weather). They all use the docs in Mexico and all say they are treated better and the offices are much nicer and only a 10th the costs of up here. Docs are more professional and knowledgeable. And no wdc recording,,,
“It’s insane that firearms are not regulated, considering the number of people who are maimed and killed by guns,”
Ten times as many people are killed every year by Big Pharma and the so-called ‘medical’ establishment.
They’re regulated.