Last time we discussed the Risk Management issues involved in counseling
patients about firearms home safety and the liability issues involved
with lack of certification and training of Physicians in Home Safety or
Firearms Safety.

Now we’ll discuss the very serious issues involving the lawful
possession and use of firearms in the home and advice to patients to
severely encumber the firearm(s) with locked storage or advising the
patient to remove them entirely.

Patient X is told by Doctor Y to remove or lock up a firearm so it is
not accessible. Patient X, does as counseled and has no firearm
available at closehand. Subsequently, patient is then the victim of a
home invasion and calls 911, but the police are buried in calls and
don’t arrive for 20 minutes during which time Patient X is raped, robbed
and murdered. Anyone can see the liability issue here, particularly Risk
Management specialists and liability insurance carriers.

It’s just a matter of when and not if this will happen, God forbid, but
it will.

Now, imagine what follows this horrendous event. Who is to blame? The
perpetrator is long gone, and even so, the Plaintiff’s litigator will
state that the perpetrator could have been neutralized by the
appropriate defensive use of a firearm, which was no longer available to
the deceased/injured because he/she followed a Physician’s advice to
render him/herself defenseless against violent crime.

The Litigator will further argue that the Physician Knew, Could have
known, Should have known that
removing a firearm from use for home defense would result in harm to the
patient if and when a crime was committed against the patient in the
home.

Physicians are already under incredible pressure from Liability and
Malpractice carriers to limit their exposure, and Malpractice rates are
staggeringly high. So, why borrow trouble?

If one acknowledges the already and dangerous general liability of home
safety counseling and then adds the very risky practice of advising
patients to disarm themselves in the face of the reality of violent
crime daily perpetrated against home owners and apartment tenants, it is
apparent that the Physician is placing him/herself in a very risky
position for suit.

It is my strong recommendation to Malpractice Carriers and those
Physicians they insure to strictly avoid this high risk practice and
reserve counseling for the area of expertise in which the are certified:
Medicine.
In my professional opinion, this is an emotionally charged political
issue that Physicians and their Carriers should not be manipulated for
what ever well-intentioned reason into taking the risk, which is
considerable……

Physicians in doubt of the veracity of what I’ve said are encouraged to
call their carriers and ask them what they currently cover, and to ask
if this new counseling policy is covered under the existing policy. We
already know what they will say: Don’t borrow trouble.

Joe Horn,
Sixth Mesa Risk Management,
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Retired.
(c) 2000
Permission is granted to reproduce this article if left intact and
complete.