I pay a fortune for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas health insurance. As my alcoholic ex-wife is on my plan, I reckon I’m getting the better part of that deal. But I don’t rely on Blue Cross for health care. I pay Dr. Garrett of Direct MD Austin [above] $100 a month per family member for concierge service. He’s an ER doc who’s there for me 24/7, via phone or text. He’s pro-Second Amendment. If and when the Black Dog nips at my heels I know I can turn to him for treatment without any chance that he’ll rat me out to the feds. And I worry about that . . .
Gun control advocates would like nothing better than to add millions of Americans — you might say all Americans (save police ) — to the prohibited persons list. They aren’t satisfied with current laws banning new gun purchases for people who’ve been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment. As reason.com reported. . .
The SAFE Act requires physicians, psychologists, registered nurses, and licensed clinical social workers to report any patient they deem “likely to engage in conduct that will cause serious harm to self or others.” The report goes to a county mental health official, who is supposed to review the clinician’s determination and, if he agrees with it, pass the information on to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, which checks to see if the subject has a gun permit. If he does, local officials are required to confiscate any firearms he owns.
While no one wants violent people to own guns, it’s equally true that confiscating firearms from people deemed potentially violent is a slippery slope towards widespread civilian disarmament. Consider the fact that some 40 million Americans are taking anti-depressants. By the same token, leaving that assessment to doctors — notorious for their anti-gun views — opens the door to government infringement of Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.
usatoday.com tells us that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, “which advises the federal government on health,” is now recommending that “primary care doctors should screen all adults for depression.” If implemented, the health care system will collect the results. Call me paranoid, but that information could be used to restrict or remove patients gun rights. Read between these lines . . .
Depression also can be life-threatening. More than 41,000 Americans commit suicide each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More Americans now die from suicide than from car accidents. About 90% of suicides are related to mental illness.
Gun control advocates recommend removing guns from the homes of depressed people to combat suicides, which accounts for two-thirds of all firearms-related deaths in the United States. A stat that anti-gunners lump in with criminal homicides and negligent discharges to decry the number of Americans who die from “gun violence.”
I don’t know the answer to this danger. But it is not placing the health care system under the control or even supervision of the federal government. The relationship between a doctor and his or her patient should be sacrosanct. Absent a working knowledge of the enormous health care industry, I consider my “extra” $100 check to Dr. Garrett the best insurance against this threat to my gun rights. I recommend that all gun owners explore the possibility of concierge medicine.