A bill in Florida would prevent pediatricians from talking with parents about guns in the home, a move doctors and public health officials call crazy and dangerous.
The proposal, which has passed both legislative houses and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, penalizes pediatricians who inquire about gun ownership or possession, unless that information is “relevant to patient’s medical care or safety or safety of others.” Doctors are also prohibited from recording firearm ownership information in a patient’s medical record.
Roughly 40 percent of homes throughout the country have guns in them, said Dr. Louis St. Petery, a pediatric cardiologist based in Tallahassee and executive vice president of the Florida Pediatric Society. “Our issue is, we want to be sure the guns are safely stored so children are not accidentally injured or killed. For pediatricians, prevention is the name of the game.”
The first draft of the legislation, known as the Privacy of Firearm Owners Bill, penalized doctors who improperly ask about gun ownership or possession with fines and jail time. In the final version, which was backed by the National Rifle Association, doctors who break the law would face sanctions by the Florida Board of Medicine. The NRA didn’t return calls seeking comment.
St. Petery compared asking about gun ownership to doctors talking with parents about pool or automobile safety, and said that even the lesser penalty would stifle pediatricians. “This bill is going to accomplish what the NRA wants: Pediatricians are not going to discuss guns in the home,” said St. Petery. “They’re going to shy away from doing that for fear of repercussions.” St. Petery added that a patient’s right to privacy is already protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
The bill is opposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
An article published earlier this year in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine reviewed data from over 100 scientific studies and found that homes with guns did not deter more crime than those without. In fact, having a gun in the home actually increased the health risk for women and children who lived there, due to an increased risk of accidents, suicide and intimidation.
According to author David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, firearms in the home are associated with higher rates of suicide; the presence of a gun makes quarrels, disputes, assaults and robberies more deadly; and there is no evidence of a “protective effect” of keeping a gun in the home, even during forced-entry burglaries.
The Florida Medical Association initially opposed the legislation, and then worked with the sponsors of the bill to remove what it considered unacceptable criminal and civil penalties, and to include language that gave doctors the ability to discuss gun issues if there was a medical or safety need. FMA executive vice president Timothy J. Stapleton released a statement that said the legislation, "as amended, protects the rights of patients, physicians and gun owners. With these improvements in place, the FMA supported the legislation. At the end of the day, we are a membership organization and the positions we take and the fights in which we choose to engage or not engage reflect the views of the majority of our members.”
Hemenway called the legislation “crazy.” “I’m a big believer that no one should tell physicians what to talk about with their patients,” he said. “To be told you can’t talk about guns to a parent with a 15-year-old with depression? For most people, you can grow up in a house with guns and nobody gets hurt, but if you do have a gun in the house, you’re increasing the likelihood of something bad happening.”
The proposal, which has passed both legislative houses and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, penalizes pediatricians who inquire about gun ownership or possession, unless that information is “relevant to patient’s medical care or safety or safety of others.” Doctors are also prohibited from recording firearm ownership information in a patient’s medical record.
Roughly 40 percent of homes throughout the country have guns in them, said Dr. Louis St. Petery, a pediatric cardiologist based in Tallahassee and executive vice president of the Florida Pediatric Society. “Our issue is, we want to be sure the guns are safely stored so children are not accidentally injured or killed. For pediatricians, prevention is the name of the game.”
The first draft of the legislation, known as the Privacy of Firearm Owners Bill, penalized doctors who improperly ask about gun ownership or possession with fines and jail time. In the final version, which was backed by the National Rifle Association, doctors who break the law would face sanctions by the Florida Board of Medicine. The NRA didn’t return calls seeking comment.
St. Petery compared asking about gun ownership to doctors talking with parents about pool or automobile safety, and said that even the lesser penalty would stifle pediatricians. “This bill is going to accomplish what the NRA wants: Pediatricians are not going to discuss guns in the home,” said St. Petery. “They’re going to shy away from doing that for fear of repercussions.” St. Petery added that a patient’s right to privacy is already protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
The bill is opposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
An article published earlier this year in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine reviewed data from over 100 scientific studies and found that homes with guns did not deter more crime than those without. In fact, having a gun in the home actually increased the health risk for women and children who lived there, due to an increased risk of accidents, suicide and intimidation.
According to author David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, firearms in the home are associated with higher rates of suicide; the presence of a gun makes quarrels, disputes, assaults and robberies more deadly; and there is no evidence of a “protective effect” of keeping a gun in the home, even during forced-entry burglaries.
The Florida Medical Association initially opposed the legislation, and then worked with the sponsors of the bill to remove what it considered unacceptable criminal and civil penalties, and to include language that gave doctors the ability to discuss gun issues if there was a medical or safety need. FMA executive vice president Timothy J. Stapleton released a statement that said the legislation, "as amended, protects the rights of patients, physicians and gun owners. With these improvements in place, the FMA supported the legislation. At the end of the day, we are a membership organization and the positions we take and the fights in which we choose to engage or not engage reflect the views of the majority of our members.”
Hemenway called the legislation “crazy.” “I’m a big believer that no one should tell physicians what to talk about with their patients,” he said. “To be told you can’t talk about guns to a parent with a 15-year-old with depression? For most people, you can grow up in a house with guns and nobody gets hurt, but if you do have a gun in the house, you’re increasing the likelihood of something bad happening.”
