Letter: Doctors taken to task
Date: Nov 17, 2006 10:19 AM
PUBLICATION: The Daily News (Halifax)
DATE: 2006.11.17
SECTION: Editorial
PAGE: 18
BYLINE:
WORD COUNT: 204

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Doctors taken to task

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To the editor:

Re: Rhonda Church’s letter, Doctor Doing Her Job, in the Nov. 16 Daily
News:

I find it incredibly hypocritical that while Church freely admits that
“it is out of my area of expertise to speak to the issue of firearm
safety,” in her next breath, she defends advocating that people “stay
away from firearms.”

Do doctors Church and Katrina Hurley similarly warn patients of the
risks of driving, ladders, ropes and poisons (all of which are
statistically at least as dangerous as firearms)? I don’t recall seeing
letters from them regarding those items.

If firearm ownership is such a dangerous pursuit, perhaps the doctors
can explain why the National Firearms Association can offer $5 million
of liability insurance for $7.95 per year for anyone involved in legal
shooting activities.

The answer comes from the insurance companies themselves, which have
stated that “gun owners are not an identifiable risk group.” Unlike
Church, these companies need to know about the safety of firearm
ownership protect their financial interests.

Doctors Church and Hurley are free to dislike firearms (which they
obviously do). But it is neither their “right” nor “responsibility”
to
inject their personal biases into the counselling of patients -
especially when those biases have no basis in fact.

Gerry Gamble
St. Catharines, Ont.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !