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IF YOU OWN A GUN CAN DOCTORS REFUSE TO TREAT YOU???
by SunShine Posted July 06, 2012

If you have a gun in your home, can doctors be allowed to refuse you treatment?


At least one federal judge thinks so, and she has issued a permanent injunction against a Florida law that would have forced doctors to provide their service.


Last year, Florida passed the “Firearm Ownership Privacy Act,” which bars doctors from asking patients about guns in the home, “unless the practitioner in good faith believes the information is relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety” and would impose sanctions if doctors “unnecessarily harass a patient about firearm ownership.”


The law was passed after an Ocala, Fla., couple complained that a doctor had asked them about guns and after they declined to answer refused to see them anymore.


But U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke had issued a temporary injunction after three doctors sued the state, claiming the “gag order” on talking to their patients about guns was an infringement of free speech and the doctor-patient relationship.


The resulting legal battle became known as the “Docs vs. Glocks” case.


The doctors were backed in the case by various physicians organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Washington-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.


The National Rifle Association, however, which helped push the law through the legislation, was barred by the judge from participating in the lawsuit, as Cooke claimed the state was fully capable of defending itself.


In a ruling issued late last week, Cooke decided for the doctors and made her injunction against the law permanent.


“The state, through this law, inserts itself in the doctor-patient relationship,” Cooke wrote in her 25-page ruling, “prohibiting and burdening speech necessary to the proper practice of preventive medicine, thereby preventing patients from receiving truthful, non-misleading information. … This it cannot do.”


Cooke asserted furthermore that the anti-harassment language of the bill is too vague and “does not provide fair notice as to what range of conduct it prohibits.”


Dan Gross, president of the Brady Center, celebrated the decision.


“Guns in the home are a proven deadly risk,” Gross said in a statement. “The government cannot tell us or our doctors that we are prohibited from discussing the deadly risks posed by guns.”


Florida Governor Rick Scott’s spokesman, Lane Wright, told the Palm Beach Post that the governor was considering whether or not to appeal the decision, but Rep. Jason Brodeur, a Republican who sponsored the bill, and the Florida Senate’s general counsel, Craig Meyer, both said they believed Scott would appeal.



AS AN ADDED NOTE: The hypocrisy of this is Medical errors are responsible for as many as 100,000 or more deaths a year in the US..

Quoted from CICERO

What would happen if you substituted gun ownership with pit bull ownership?

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Never in my life have I heard of a doctor asking about firearms, unless they were treating depression, or suicidal tendecies.

Quoted from BuckStrider

Oh, so you HAVE heard this question asked by a doctor. Did he also ask if the person owned any knives? Maybe some rope? How about if he made any plans to jump out of airplanes. It seems to be kinda popular around these parts.

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/jun/08/0608_planejump/?print

http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2011/09/19/news/doc4e76c811d7385101041552.txt

Quoted from Tommy

By the way, I'm far from being anti-gun rights, but unlike knives or rope, guns serve only one singular purpose.

Quoted from Box A Rox

A while back, my doctor asked me if I had any firearms at home.  I told him yes... he asked if I
had them locked so that children didn't have access to them.  Again I told him yes.  He said "THANK YOU".  
He then said, When kids get a hold of guns, it's EMT's doctors and nurses who have to deal with the outcome.

Doctors will ask older patients if they have any "throw rugs" in their homes.  Doctors are not trying to ban
'throw rugs'... they are trying to prevent needless injuries to their patients who may not see rugs as a source
of harm.

Quoted from Shadow

This comes under the heading of need to know, until doctors become law enforcement officers they don't need to know.

Quoted from Shadow

This comes under the heading of need to know, until doctors become law enforcement officers they don't need to know.

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-On July 19, 4-year-old Dylan Jackson shot himself to death after finding a loaded gun at
a friend's home during a birthday party.

- A 3-year-old Southeast Washington boy shot himself in the foot and grazed his hand while
playing with his father's gun -- which he found lying on the floor.

- A 2-year-old Tampa boy shot himself in the chest with a loaded 9 mm he found in his parent's
couch while playing.

- Last February, a 13-year-old boy shot himself with a semiautomatic handgun in the home of
his guardian, a Maryland police officer.

- The 10-year-old son of a New York City police officer died after shooting himself in the face
with his father's loaded revolver. The boy found the weapon on a shelf in the basement while
looking for a ball his mom had hidden.