From: [email protected]
Subject: ACTION: Gun-grabbing Doctors: An E-pamphlet For
Patients
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 21:53:29 EDT

DRGO ALERT TO GUN OWNERS AND THEIR FAMILIES:

Do you own a gun? How many guns do you have? Do your
children have access to guns in your home? Did you know
that having a gun in your home triples your risk of becoming
a homicide victim?

These are questions your doctor may ask you or your children
as part of routine physical examinations or questionnaires.
All the gun-related questions you are likely to encounter in
doctors’ offices, especially pediatricians, are based on
doctor groups’ political movement against gun owners. That
movement is spearheaded by the American Academy of
Pediatrics,
although the AMA and other physician groups have launched
similar efforts against gun owners.

With a few very rare exceptions, such questions about guns
do not reflect a physician’s concern about gun safety.
Rather, they are intended to intimidate or prejudice
impressionable and trusting children (and their parents)
into thinking that guns are somehow bad.

That political motive makes these questions ethically wrong.
This form of professional misconduct is known as a boundary
violation. Any doctor who asks these politically motivated
questions about your guns, either directly or on a
questionnaire, should be disciplined.

And who can discipline the physician? You, the almighty
consumer. That’s right. If you, the patient or parent,
file a formal written complaint with the offending doctor’s
HMO or medical group, your complaint will be taken
seriously. The doctor will be asked to respond to it. In
any case, your polite but firm protest will be a black mark
on his or her record that will
likely make him or her think twice before repeating the
offense.

Patients not enrolled in a health plan (HMO) may see a
private practice doctor in a small group or solo practice.
Unethical behavior by such a doctor can be reported to your
county medical society, which is likely to have a public
service committee whose job it is to review complaints from
the public. Although federal anti-trust laws have mostly
stripped these committees of their enforcement powers, they
can still get an erring physician’s attention.

Medicine has become an extremely competitive service
industry. HMO’s and medical groups are trying harder than
ever to please consumers and not anger them. The last thing
a doctor wants these days, next to a malpractice suit, is a
health plan member complaint alleging unethical conduct.

If the doctor persists or is especially inappropriate, you
can send that formal complaint to the doctor’s state
licensing board. You can search your state government’s web
site to find your state’s medical licensing board. This
site should describe the procedure for formal consumer
complaints. Also you can look in your phone book under
state government for your state medical
board’s consumer hot line. Boards generally accept only
written complaints.

A consumer complaint to the medical licensing board is a
last resort, and it will be a definite blemish on the
doctor’s career. But it may be necessary for repeat
offenders. This step will apply enormous pressure on the
boundary-violating physician, even if the state board takes
no official action against his or her license.

To summarize: you don’t have to suffer in silence and you
don’t have to disclose personal information about your gun
ownership to politically motivated doctors. And most
important, you can strike back at unethical doctors who
abuse your trust to advance a political agenda against
law-abiding gun owning families.

I discuss the ethical basis for all this in my article at
the Claremont Institute’s web site, “Boundary Violation: Gun
Politics In The Doctor’s Office.” You will find it at

http://www.claremont.org/publications/wheeler7.cfm

Please save this message and forward it to others you know
who have been the targets of anti-gun political activism in
the doctor’s office.

Best regards,

Timothy Wheeler, MD
Director

Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership
a Project of The Claremont Institute
PO Box 1931
Upland, CA 91785-1931

voice message/fax (909) 949-9971
e-mail [email protected]

To learn more about DRGO go to The Claremont Institute’s web
site (www.claremont.org) and click on DRGO. Or click on
Publications, then Second Amendment to read our editorials.

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