Guns Available to Children: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research, has, among other things, Guidelines for Physicians and other Health Care professionals, and in particular, pediatricians.

With regard to pre-school patients,


Because of the dangers that in-home firearms, particularly handguns, pose to young children, parents should be advised to keep handguns out of places where children live and play. If parents choose to keep a firearm in the home, the unloaded gun and ammunition must be kept in separate locked cabinets.

For school-age children, that is starting at age 4 or 5,


In addition to removing firearms from the home environment where children explore and play, it is important for parents to ask whether there is a gun in any home that their child visits. If parents choose to keep a firearm in the home, the unloaded gun and ammunition must be kept in separate locked cabinets.

As to patients who are adolescents, pediatricians are expected to discuss,


In-home firearms are particularly dangerous during adolescence because of the potential for impulsive, unplanned use by teens resulting in suicide, homicide, or serious unintentional injuries. Firearms, and especially handguns, should be kept out of the home. If parents choose to keep a firearm in the home, the unloaded gun and ammunition must be kept in separate locked cabinets. Parents should ask whether there is a gun in any home that teenagers visit.

These topics are not exclusive; pediatricians are also expected to discuss healthy eating habits, traffic safety and other topics appropriate to the patient's age and development.


Ah, but these common-sense guidelines are anathema to the National Rifle Association and its followers to whom any limits on "packing heat" means a slide toward socialism, communism or whatever "ism" that gets their panties in a wad at any particular time.

Enter Florida State Representative Jason Brodeur, a Republican from Sanford, Florida. Representative Brodeur introduced, and Governor signed, Section 790.338, Florida Statutes. This law enacts a dream of the National Rifle Association. Framed as a law to grant privacy rights to gun owners, the law limits conversations between doctor and patient.

A healthcare provider should not ask about firearms in the home. Period.

There are some exceptions', but, essentially, if a physician discusses guns in the home, there are draconian penalties. For each violation (conversation) the physicians have his or license revoked and can be fined up to $10,000!


Marion Hammer, executive director of United Sportsmen of Florida and a former national NRA president, is quoted as saying gun rights groups have no opposition to a physician's office handing out brochures on gun safety or swimming pools but the direct questioning on whether there are guns in the home of a patient and how they store them goes too far. "Simply, it's none of their business," Hammer said. She continued in a formal statement, "But doctors should not be spending the time that patients are paying for to talk to them about matters they're not there for. They come to doctors for medical care and medical treatment, not to have politics in the examining room and not to be lectured on firearms. They are medical doctors; they are not firearms instructors."


Although the Florida Medical Association has withdrawn formal opposition to the new law, after some exceptions were included to allow gun discussions if there is an imminent safety danger, whatever that means, a group of doctors have filed suit in the United States District Court in Miami to declare Section 790.338 an unconstitutional infringement of the physician's First Amendment rights.

The issue of gun rights has been discussed enough, at this site and elsewhere. And this truly is not a gun control issue.

However, it seems inconsistent for this law to have come from the party that doesn't want government interference in health care is nutty.