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Boston mayor wants doctors to grill patients about guns

They’re coming for you next: Boston’s liberal mayor want to require doctors to ask patients if they own guns and then lecture them about gun safety.

This act would require medical professionals to ask patients about guns in the home, and bring up the topics of gun safety. The goal, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said, is to identify those at risk for domestic violence, suicide or child access to guns in order to guide people to mental health counseling, resources or other help. “We’re just asking them to help identify ways to save lives,” Gross said.

The fact that a patient owns guns would not be put in their medical record, and is not intended to have physicians help solve crimes.

If my doctor asked me this, I would tell him to jump in a lake. It is none of his business. However, this is clearly aimed at raising the social cost of gun ownership by making society more hostile to it. The next step would be to demand this data be recorded, which would then provide the government a list of gun owners that they can target.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

16 comments

  • Cotour

    And if a patient refuses to participate in or listen to or comment on what the doctor might be required by the state to ask him or her about their firearms or if they own a firearm, would they ultimately then refuse to render care to them?

  • Cotour

    What would the result be if you were to say to your doctor who might be required by the state to ask such questions by the state:

    “Dr., respectfully, you are wasting my time and your time by asking me these questions, I have no comment one way or another on them. Can we now address my healthcare and why I have come to see you today?”

    If the state was to mandate such questions and they were ignored by the citizens that were asked them, what measures might the state then take to enforce its mandate?

    A slippery slope if there has ever been one.

  • jburn

    Resist. Resist their intrusion into your life.
    Increasingly, I consider it my patriotic duty to deceive bureaucrats and their agents. Why should I be truthful to the enemy of my fellow citizens?

  • commodude

    It would be the last question that medical provider ever asked me.

    I would leave and seek care elsewhere, in another state if need be.

  • Cotour

    More to my point, what if you were to honestly and straight up resist the mandated questions by your doctor?

    To truly resist you stand up and say “I will not participate in this offence to freedom and my privacy”.

    To go the easy way and deceive your oppressors is another thing entirely. And I understand the strategy, you just want to get done what you need to get done and go home.

    Its in the banks right now, every time I go to my bank now, even though they know who I am and that I am a commercial customer I am required to present my I.D.. I am certain it is a part of the Patriot Act.

    And it infuriates me! I call it prison bank. So impersonal and institutional, and that is the trajectory we are on.

    This is now “Bank policy”, I have considered changing my bank but the inconvenience and expense causes me to just provide what the computer asks the teller to ask for. The computer can ask the teller to do anything and they must comply, much like the doctor will be required to do. You do not properly answer the computer and there will be a problem. “Im sorry sir but I can not take your deposit, give you healthcare, sell you groceries, fill your tooth etc, etc if you do not answer the questions.

    The line approaches, who will refuse to allow it to advance?

  • Keith

    Looks like I’ll need to bring an attorney to future doctor appointments.

  • Phill O

    If governments wanted to save live, the they should outlaw marijuana and automobiles.

  • Max

    The doctor is also required to give you a shot… Which one he gives you depends on your answer…

    Free healthcare, it’s just one pill. Dr. Obama recommends it.
    https://youtu.be/rin4h4cRs6Y

  • I don’t imagine the doctors are too thrilled about this, either.

  • FC

    Recently there was a suit against a Florida law that prohibited doctors from nagging patients about guns. The anti-gun doctors won because of the First Amendment. Now mayor of Boston wants to compel speech. I’d like to see him try.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician_gag_law
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compelled_speech

  • Robert Pratt

    I carry my firearm into my doc’s office and have had to set it on the exam bed when undressing. No one blinked an eye. Good doc. We conducted concealed carry classes in my cardiologist’s board room for him, his EMT wife, and other docs. Wonder how appalled the Boston moron would be at that?!

  • BSJ

    I’d say even odds that Trump will sell out two amendment people for his wall.

  • Cotour

    Trump must straight out make Pelosi bend to his agenda, a continuation of the rational and reasonable fencing / walls / barriers that already exist on out Southern border that helps control the illegal entry into the country of drugs, murdering gang members, potential sleeper terrorists from the mid east etc, etc. Period.

    Anything less than that and its a loss and is not only a loss for Trump and his chances of being reelected but a great loss for the people of America. Pelosi will in time be seen as being the purely politically motivated animal and is holding the people of America hostage.

    I believe you suggested that Trump will “trade the second amendment for the wall”? If that or something other than what I have described happens due to Trumps folding and capitulating then its all over. Trump has got to hunker down and refuse no matter what to sign anything unless he gets his $5.7 billion dollars, 1/10th of 1 percent of the budget for the security that we all want and need.

    All of the Democrat leadership have previously voted for much more than $5.7 Billion for border security and must be dragged to the reality of their own words. Trump knows what he must do, this shut down has the potential to be months long?

    Trading the second amendment for a wall? I think not.

  • I think if my physician ever asked me about firearms ownership, I would say “Hey doc, I’m happy to discuss that with you. But can we also discuss how many times you’ve missed a diagnosis? Because estimates are that 250,000 people a year die in the US from medical errors. And there’s only 30,000 deaths from firearms. So which is more likely to affect me?”

  • Max

    Steve, great point! Just as it’s in the news this week that overdoses have killed more people than mobile crashes…

  • Peggy Heath

    I hate to tell you, Bob, that if the question is asked, the answer will be recorded. Otherwise, there is no point in asking.

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