Have you ever been frustrated (or outraged) by your physician’s invasive questions about your firearms? Have you ever hemmed and hawed trying to explain to a physician what your health needs are without mentioning your firearms? Ever feel like you should have your blood lead level checked without explaining why?
Have you wished for an eye doctor who could adjust your bifocals to suit your front sight? How about finding a shoulder surgeon or physical therapist who understands your shotgunning needs? Or maybe you just want to have your yearly check-up without the political prying?
With Organized Medicine’s blatant anti-gun bias, dealing with the medical community at all can be a challenge, let alone finding a doc who can meet your specific firearms-related health needs.
Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership is working on a solution to your problem. DRGO is a project of the Second Amendment Foundation and is an organization of 2A-supportive physicians and allied health professionals who believe that firearms are NOT a public health issue.
DRGO has started a gun-friendly medical referral service called 2ADoc.com. This is a private directory, accessible only by DRGO. Being listed [as a provider] is voluntary. (Application form is available on the website.) The physician or allied health professional’s information is not publicly published, and is only accessible by DRGO in order to make a requested referral.
The advantage to health professionals is that they may be able to increase their patient base while better serving their community.
The advantage to potential patients is all of what was mentioned previously, plus they may end up with healthcare that they can actually relax with, not feel so guarded, and thus receive better care. They may even be able to swap shooting or hunting stories in the bargain. (Request form is available on the website.)
There are some caveats. There is no guarantee that the database has someone listed in the area requested. There is also no guarantee that any listed providers would be in the requestee’s insurance network. But the more professionals who sign up, the greater a patient’s chances of finding the healthcare they are looking for.
If your own doc is gun-friendly, encourage him or her to sign up and share this around. The more docs (and PAs and NPs and PTs, etc) who sign up, the greater the chances of other people finding a doc in their coverage plan. The more health professionals who participate, the more the entire shooting community benefits. [More information for providers is in the FAQ.]
“Dr. LateBloomer” is the pen name of a female general pediatrician (MD, MPH, FAAP) who enjoys competitive shooting sports, including IDPA, USPSA and 3-Gun. Evil semi-automatic firearms are her favorites.
This article originally appeared at drgo.us and is reprinted here with permission.
I just say “what’s a gun”. Not their business!
i call bullshit on this entire situation. i just can’t imagine how a gun would come up in a doctors visit unless its for a gun shot wound.
i find it hard to believe there are doctors out there that operate like this:
Dr: so what am i seeing you for today?
patient: my back has a sharp pain.
Dr: do you have you guns locked up safely?
yeah, no.
if the patient mentions it though, then i would say its fair game for the doctor to inquire about what gun and such but that would also have limits.
Tried to explain your hearing loss without mentioning you hunted regularly without ear protection?
Tried explaining to an optometrist you need to be able to focus on a front sight or crosshair?
Also, some docs *do* ask, and *do* pontificate on the usual BS studies, often quoting the “11 times more likely” study. They shut up real fast when asked if they actually read that study, I’ve found.
A few years ago after an eye exam, while looking at frames out in the optometrist’s area, I mentioned to my wife that I had read about prescription shooting glasses and how they could be tailored to let you see the sights and the target properly.
Of course the eye doctor happened to overhear it.
He broke right in and told me that based on my exam, I wasn’t likely to benefit from anything like that anytime soon…and that if I ever felt the need for it, to come see him and he’d hook me up, as he had already done for several patients.
I’m pretty sure our pediatrician mentioned firearm storage — along with other babyproofing/childproofing concerns like medicine cabinets, cleaning supplies, swimming pools, and strangulation and electrocution hazards — but I don’t recall being asked specifically if we had any. (Although it could be that we were asked and I don’t remember it, since it wouldn’t have seemed significant at the time, being as we didn’t have any.)
Some doctors actually understand.
I call bullshit on your call of bullshit based on personal anecdotal evidence.
Being an instructor in Seattle, I did I lot of indoor shooting, plus a lot of outdoor shooting, and a whole lot of reloading. I go in yearly for various tests, and I always have to specifically ask for a lead-level check. Every time – and I mean every time – I get asked why I would want such a thing, and I’m told they only do that for babies who might be eating paint off the walls.
“My job involves environments with particulate lead exposure. I’d just like to be sure.” leads to “what kind of work?”, which means I either have to lie (which I do) or hear about it. Every. Single. Time.
Once I failed to take my holster off (though there was no gun in it, because professional courtesy), and they called the cops on me while they left me waiting in an exam room thinking I was waiting for a doctor.
Once I went to an urgent care because my toe was in exquisite pain (it was gout). I was grilled on how much I had been drinking the night before (none – I don’t drink), had I gotten into any bar fights (no, I don’t drink), and did I have any firearms? I asked what that had to do with anything, and they told me that they have to report it if they suspect me of domestic violence. Because I had gout.
So, yes, there’s some bullshit involved, but it’s on the doctor’s end.
The very fact that you live in Seattle demonstrates a thinking deficit.
Stand down JJ.
Don’t try double time to “earn” your aviator name.
This man is fighting the good fight behind enemy lines.
‘Nuff said.
JJ got drunk and sucked a big **** once upon a time in Seattle, forgive him bad memories.
Little horn, it is becoming common for pediatricians to ask a series of “safety” questions. This is from personal experience during a physical for my 15 yr old son:
Doc “Can you swim?”
Son “Yes”
Doc “If you have firearms, are they locked up when not in use?”
Me ” That question crosses a boundary. Also, you didn’t ask if we had a pool and if it had a fence. You asked if he could swim. Yet you asked if we had firearms and were they locked up. You should be consistent and either ask about the pool or ask if he knows how to safely handle a firearm.”
It is not BS
Just went for annual physical last week. There’s a form to fill out: Do you smoke? Do you drink? Do you have firearms in the house? Are you afraid of anyone in your home? Have you thought of hurting yourself? This is in Cook County, IL. No mention if I have a big dog in the house or lots of candy/chocolate or cleaning supplies or shovels/hoes/pitch forks. Lots of dangerous things can be in a house, eh?
Not BS, my wife just last week took my twin 12 yr old girls for their school physical and the lady doctor asked some pointed questions to the kids that my wife was instructed not to answer. One of the questions was “Are there any guns in your house”. I was outraged when I heard this. Absolutely NONE of their business.
“This interview is over. Come on, girls, I’ll try to find you a real doctor”
As a health care professional, in a pretty pro-gun state, THIS is EXACTLY how it goes. Anti-gun providers who have been brain washed to believe that owning a gun is bad for your health do exactly that. They ask about your guns, how you keep them, what you do with them, what you plan on doing with them. If you haven’t had that experience, I can understand how it would be unbelievable.
Come in to the clinic with a rolled ankle that happened while scouting, or a hurt shoulder while hanging a tree stand. Smashed finger from the gun safe. Feeling depressed today. There are a thousand reasons guns could come up in a treatment with a reasonable provider. But there are also clinicians who will bring up anti-gun, disarmament propaganda with every client in which he or she comes in contact.
have to be careful…just tell them you have trouble driving…and watch what happens!
I say filp it on the doc asking the question like this
he or she–but he is more fun!
they ask you about guns
you stop them and “say well doc since we are getting personal and not talking about my health any longer –yell out at this point for maximum effect…”does your wife use a strap-on on your sissy ass or just jams that puppy in deep into your butt!”
that will end it there and I bet you get a new doc–besides –fuck them!
stupid.
for one, they literally just put themselves on a list.
two, none of their damn business.
three, are we really only going to go to a Doctor based on his political standings???? that is asinine.
it’s scary how many people only want to visit “echo chambers”.
I’m confused about your reply. Obviously, you are not from Florida or are even familiar with the doctor vrs 2A problem spreading across the country. In Florida, doctors have been going as far as dropping patients that own guns and in the examining room interrogate children about their parents, if they own guns, availability of guns in their homes, whether they were locked up and on and on including scaring kids about guns, with emphasis on children that also shoot. Additionally, doctors will even go as far as belittling and lecturing parents of the dangers associated with guns. Treat you as child abusing low life second rate citizen clinging to our guns and bibles.
The Florida legislature passed a law signed by the governor against this practice that lasted for a couple of years. The law was then thrown out by the liberal state Supreme Court through a law suit against the state brought by all the usual anti gun groups and socialist American Medical Association. Its a real thing and not just an echo chamber for like minds and beliefs. Hope you don’t experience it.
I absolutely choose doctors based on their politics. My previous catholic doctor refused to refer me for a vasectomy because he felt it was a waste of the urologist’s time, seeing how I wasn’t sticking it to any ladies at the time and -if I ever did- then it was my duty to get them preggers because Jesus wants more gay fathers or something.
I have a different, gay- and gun-friendly doctor now, though he’s 30 minutes away.
See my previous comment.
And mine too!
Right after JJ’s…
Not stupid at all. It’s self preservation. It’s time for lines in the sand because they are doing it. I don’t associate with anyone who has a Bernie, BarryO, or I’m with Her sticker at all. I’m paying cash now at my little neighborhood store because their CC processing machine says First Data on it. They tried to put Rocky Mountain Reloading out of business.
The reason the doctor asks you these questions is because the federal government requires it to give the full Medicare payment
Even If you personally are not a Medicare patient
In an effort to measure “quality“ the government is making us ask these questions and fill out forms about compliance with asking these questions
The Questions are different for each specialty
Our eye surgeons have to ask about your flu shot status
We anesthesiologists have to ask about smoking cessation
They are not actually checking on anything so go ahead and lie
It’s easier for all concerned if you just say no to the question do you have a gun and no you did not smoke today
Correct answer to the flu shot question is yes you had a flu shot
Easy as it is to be out raged that the government is forcing this kind of speech on doctors, please just lie with the most liberal possible answer and I will get my full Medicare payment out of the government.
Then we can get back to discussing if I can come shoot on your big piece of property out in the country
I’m 66 and I have only had one Dr. I’ve seen discuss firearms with me, and that was my dentist. One day she stopped in my office (I was the City Administrator) and saw what I was carrying (yes, those of us who had CCW’s were authorized to carry at work), out in the field concealed, but I carried open. (Interestingly enough, with the 100’s of people I dealt with, not one of them had a problem with me carrying.)
From then on, my dentist and I discussed guns every visit, and I always carried when getting my dental work done. Unfortunately I’ve since moved and will have to break in new Drs. and a new dentist. Hopefully I can find ones as gun friendly and gun savvy as Dr. F is.
I have to agree with a commenter above on the premise of “when is this happening?”
As a person who routinely (every month, and a specialist every 3 months) sees a doctor, I’ve NEVER been asked about or talked to about guns, knives, violence, fighting, or anything that would remotely tie into those conversations. Never have I in my life (I’ve been seeing doctors for my issue since 1995) been questioned by any of the dozens of doctors I’ve had in that time.
Not sure where this is coming from, but one or two cases of this is a statistical outlier.
http://jpfo.org/articles-assd04/codrea-third-way-for-drs-to-ask-about-guns.htm
I am a physician who is as offended by being expected to ask about firearms in the home as you all are to be asked. I have been on the receiving end and I simply and respectfully ask back “Why do you want to know ?” If they say they are supposed to to fill out the evaluation I tell them that is not a good enough to answer such a personal question. If they give me some nonsense about children’s safety (I have a 7 and 8 year old) I ask them to explain safe storage practices. I have never got a real answer at this point. If I did I would then ask them the 4 rules of gun safety (which my boys know forwards and backwards) and proceed from there. Unless they demonstrate real knowledge about firearms I will just throw it back in their face (respectfully of course) until they give up. If they want to have an ignorant dance around firearms, let’s dance.
I don’t ask about firearms when I see patients unless they are wearing an NRA hat or something of that sort and then I ask what or where do they shoot just as if I was at the range. We can then have a discussion that will never get put in their chart. Learned a few things doing that by the way.
^Exactly.
Perfectly enacted. And stated.
I could possibly be swayed out of my “real job” in the biomedical field in exchange for a decent post-doc research opportunity…
Though I refuse to take any job in a state where i can’t bring my stuff with me…
My Dr. has seen me walk out of the woods with my turkey gun, so there is that. He also asked the question as it is on that medical form. We ended up talking about his Mosins. I do wonder where the info ends up, though.
When they start asking I usually start pulling on my penis, and I yell “leave me alone, I don’t want to eat his face, leave me alone phuck shiit aaaaaargh”, they never ask again! Granted you don’t have to go that far, the pulling on the penis thing might be a little exaggerated.
This group has a taken a step in the right direction. But as medical professionals they have much to work on, being representatives of the 3rd(Very likely 1st if all deaths reported)leading cause of death in the US.
The fact that Dr. LateBloomer has to use a nom de guerre says it all.
If she came out of the closet, she’d suffer career damage, and with all those student loans . . . Well, you get my point. Hopefully when she’s older and is a partner in a practice she can come out.
bottom line, do not do business with any anti gun businesses. and the fed gov’t has no business knowing about my guns on some form. and are the doctors planning to rob the houses that say they have no guns at home? do they supply this info to some one who would? it is not their business. and I agree, we need a line in the sand and stand up for ourselves. POTG