Doctors' groups threaten to sue if gun privacy bill becomes law | On Call with Stacey Singer

In a move that sets up a Second Amendment vs. First Amendment showdown, three Florida physicians’ groups are threatening to sue to block the “Privacy of Firearm Owners” law.

At the time they sent the letter (see below) containing the threat, the law awaited Gov. Rick Scott’s signature. They again urged him not to sign it, saying it unconstitutionally attempted to deprive doctors of their First Amendment rights to free speech.

Apparently Scott went with the Second Amendment.

It was the pediatricians who were at the center of this debate. If teens seem depressed, pediatricians are trained to ask parents if there’s a gun in the home because of the suicide risk.

With smaller children, it’s an issue of curiosity and guns’ resemblance to toys.

They ask because studies have shown that storing guns properly — keeping ammunition and guns locked in seprate places — dramatically reduces the chance of an accident. And they ask because having that conversation makes it much more likely that parents will store their guns properly.

According to the CDC:

…injuries are the leading cause of death of people ages 1 to 44, and emergency room data shows that shooting deaths are the second highest cause of injuries among those ages 10 to 24, behind car accidents.

Suicide by firearms was the fourth leading cause of injury for those over age 15.

The NRA pushed the gun privacy law, which prohibits such questions in certain circumstances, because they said the information winds up in the medical record, opening the door for insurance companies and possibly the government to know if there are guns in the home.

You can see the lawyers’ letter to Gov. Scott below.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 at 11:20 am and is filed under Doctors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.