The Next Big Left Wing Gun Control Initiative...

[JBS]

...just might be launched through Obamacare.

As it turns out, Obama's Surgeon General nominee is radically anti-gun. Not surprisingly, he's been an anti-gun activist and also previously ran an organization called "Doctors for Obama".

Anyway, you can skim the article and find some fun little nuggets, like the fact that this doctor thinks "guns are a health care issue". Those are his actual words, too. So, an inanimate object is a health care issue. I'm sure he's got some circular logic for why he thinks that, but that's not the kicker. The kicker is this guy wants to launch a campaign to start having doctors investigate who owns guns, and have them record such things. If he has his way, and if the Far Left have their way, next, there'll be small clusters of Left Wing gun control activist doctors all over New York and Virginia and North Carolina and everywhere else involving themselves in areas of their patient's lives they have no business in.

I might be jumping the gun a little, but I can't help but think of how a government run health care system- which is what has (predictably) begun to emerge from Obamacare- could create quite a foundation for medically endorsed/enforced gun control.

Obama's Anti-Second Amendment Nominee For Surgeon General: Guns Are a Healthcare Issue

The age of politicizing everything is here and President Obama's pick for Surgeon General is no different. Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy has been tapped to lead the charge when it comes to promoting public health with the full weight of the federal government behind him. He also has a history of promoting gun control, of slamming the Second Amendment and has publicly called guns a "healthcare issue" and public health threat.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiep...edium=story&utm_campaign=BreakingNewsCarousel

 

[TLDR20]

...just might be launched through Obamacare.

As it turns out, Obama's Surgeon General nominee is radically anti-gun. Not surprisingly, he's been an anti-gun activist and also previously ran an organization called "Doctors for Obama".

Anyway, you can skim the article and find some fun little nuggets, like the fact that this doctor thinks "guns are a health care issue". Those are his actual words, too. So, an inanimate object is a health care issue. I'm sure he's got some circular logic for why he thinks that, but that's not the kicker. The kicker is this guy wants to launch a campaign to start having doctors investigate who owns guns, and have them record such things. If he has his way, and if the Far Left have their way, next, there'll be small clusters of Left Wing gun control activist doctors all over New York and Virginia and North Carolina and everywhere else involving themselves in areas of their patient's lives they have no business in.

I might be jumping the gun a little, but I can't help but think of how a government run health care system- which is what has (predictably) begun to emerge from Obamacare- could create quite a foundation for medically endorsed/enforced gun control.

I think you are jumping the gun a little. As nothing has been enacted. However, mental health should be a factor when assessing one for gun ownership, IMHO. Whether or a healthcare provider should be actively inquiring as to the ownership of guns, well that is a different thing all together.

 

[Salt USMC]

I don't think anything will come of it. Like I've mentioned many times before, Democrats don't have the political capital to push gun control right now.

 

[Swill]

If you accept that firearms are a public health issue simply because they are involved in death, then you have to accept that anything that causes a persons death can become a public health issue. There are no other defined criteria of judgement in the argument. It's ridiculous on premise alone; to believe that a firearm is the same as an infectious disease is, well... I question the rationality of anyone who thinks that.

And for funsies, the page from Doctor's for America that argues the issue (below) links to Wikipedia as its source for stats on gun related violence. If you follow the bread trail of sourcing... you won't find any. It's not that I think they are making the stats up. It's that I think they are soft-brained thinkers.

http://www.drsforamerica.org/blog/the-worst-public-health-crisis-youve-never-heard-of

 

[Marauder06]

The doctors here used to ask "Do you have guns in the home?" None of your damn business, doc. Now they just ask, "Do you feel safe at home?" which I think is much more legit.

 

[racing_kitty]

I remember the push in Florida a few years ago to get doctors to ask about the presence of guns in homes. It did not go over well, at all. While the argument could be made that the gun question was part of a preliminary mental screening by the triage nurse at a doctor's office ("Are you in any pain? Have you been feeling depressed, anxious, or having trouble sleeping? Do you own a gun?"), I don't see it as a proper question to be asked by the doctor, unless the doctor is looking to sell his Sig to an interested patient.

I saw an article yesterday on the Daily Mail recounting how the nominee, as a HS valedictorian, blamed Saturday morning cartoons for gun violence.

Dr. Vivek Murthy, who founded Doctors for Obama in 2008 – a group that later changed its name to 'Doctors for America – was a graduating high school senior at the time, one of several valedictorians the Miami Herald interviewed.

'Vivek Murthy, 16, of Palmetto High, takes television cartoons to task' for 'the growing problem of kids and violence,' according to the Herald.

'Today, a typical elementary student wakes up on Saturday mornings to fiery gun battles, explosive scenes of terror and the violent decimation of the "bad guy" – all this in a children's cartoon,' Murthy said then.

'With such destructive influence, society's preoccupation with firearms and brutal methods of conflict resolution is no surprise.'

His rejection of guns doesn't seem to have changed, only his rationalizations for his hatred. Just because he's got the book smarts to be a doctor doesn't mean he isn't prone to go through any lengths necessary to defend what he views as the only correct view point in an argument. He may no longer believe that cartoons are to blame, or he may simply know better than to let on that he still feels that way. It's hard to tell. But it's not out of line to seriously distrust this guy, or this administration as a whole. Except for keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally deranged, gun laws ought to have no bearing on the office of the surgeon general.

 

[gunny44]

And yet cities that are gun free zones such as Chicago have e.r. facilities that are packed to capacity with gun crime victims. Thats one thing that the progressive parasites always fail to realize. It is a citizen's job to be the first line of personal defense, not big brother's job to predict the motives of men for exercising their constitution rights. If you ask me its hazardous to one's health in these times for one not to carry when our government turns a blind eye to the real threat to our nation's health, lack of common values...

 

[racing_kitty]

It is a citizen's job to be the first line of personal defense,

I do believe the police chief in that lovely vacation hot spot known as Detroit has said something to that effect quite a few times in the last few days.

 

[DA SWO]

Easy solution.

Just say no when the Dr asks if you have any guns. Then ask the Dr. how many guns he owns.

The problem is family members, ex-wives/husbands/boyfriends/girlfriends flapping their jaws.

I don't own any guns btw.

 

[JBS]

Doctor: "Do you have guns in the home?"

Patient: "uh... I don't think that's any of your business and I don't see how it's relevant. .."

Doctor: *scribbles on notepad, mumbling* "subject is highly defensive, combative, irrational. Appears to be suffering from moderate to severe paranoia..."

Patient: "what the..."

Doctor: "uncooperative, threatening in posture and body language..."

 

[Scotth]

The NRA says we need to address the mental health issues related to these mass shootings. I'm not sure what the Surgeon General has for a role when it comes to Obamacare? Obamacare isn't a government run health care system. You buying insurance from a private companies period.

How are we suppose to deal with mental health issues and gun violence if they don't ask and talk about it?

Like SOWT said, just because they ask doesn't mean you have to answer the question. It's not like the doctor offices are going to go around and start collecting guns but they can talk to family members about the situation if someone is having issues so that preventative measures can take place in the home before it's to late.

 

[racing_kitty]

How are we suppose to deal with mental health issues and gun violence if they don't ask and talk about it?

Like SOWT said, just because they ask doesn't mean you have to answer the question. It's not like the doctor offices are going to go around and start collecting guns but they can talk to family members about the situation if someone is having issues so that preventative measures can take place in the home before it's to late.

I agree with keeping guns from the mentally unstable. That being said, if someone who's truly at risk for ending it is sitting at the doctor's office, the doc needs to address all means of committing suicide. Don't get wrapped around the gun axle. Most docs don't.

What I was talking about in Florida, and I should have stated it then, was that docs were instructed to ask about gun ownership the same way they ask about drinking /smoking habits and the date of a woman's LMP. That's not a mental health context, and frankly outside of the M.D.'s bailiwick.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Just like when filling out paperwork at a doctor's office and they want to know employer, job, work phone number, etc. It is only their business if you make it their business.

 

[TLDR20]

Just like when filling out paperwork at a doctor's office and they want to know employer, job, work phone number, etc. It is only their business if you make it their business.

As a side note listing things like occupation and hobbies can help aid the physician in diagnosis and treatment. As an example my father in law just had to get an MRI but due to him blacksmithing as a hobby they had to do something other than an MRI, as the magnets could move particles of metal in his eyes leading to blindness. Something to think about while you are hoarding useless info from your doctors.

 

[Red-Dot]

Easy solution.

Just say no when the Dr asks if you have any guns. Then ask the Dr. how many guns he owns.

The problem is family members, ex-wives/husbands/boyfriends/girlfriends flapping their jaws.

I don't own any guns btw.

That's what G. Gordon Liddy used to say.....I don't own any guns, but Mrs. Liddy sure does!!

 

[RustyShackleford]

As a side note listing things like occupation and hobbies can help aid the physician in diagnosis and treatment. As an example my father in law just had to get an MRI but due to him blacksmithing as a hobby they had to do something other than an MRI, as the magnets could move particles of metal in his eyes leading to blindness. Something to think about while you are hoarding useless info from your doctors.

Never said it was useless info and I have never once not had a doctor not ask me what I do for a living and still have to expound on what my job involves.

It's the admin staff that have no need to know what people do for a living and I have a very recent example where one's significant other being charge in a RICO case where I am a pt.

 

[Brill]

The doctors here used to ask "Do you have guns in the home?" None of your damn business, doc. Now they just ask, "Do you feel safe at home?" which I think is much more legit.

Sums it up:

 

[Chopstick]

My reply from Senator Pat Toomey:

March 14, 2014

Dear (insert Chop's real name here),

Thank you for contacting me about Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nominee for U.S. Surgeon General. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, on January 6, 2014, President Obama nominated Mr. Murthy to be the U.S. Surgeon General. I believe that the Senate's constitutional role in providing advice and consent for federal appointments is important, and such nominees deserve careful and thorough consideration. I take this responsibility seriously and have supported - and will continue to support - well qualified nominees selected by the President.

That said, the Surgeon General is the most prominent government spokesperson on matters of public health and is responsible for overseeing more than 6,700 uniformed members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Dr. Murthy has had a relatively short career in medicine that is rather lacking on public health issues for a position of this stature. Instead, Dr. Murthy, as the president of a partisan political organization, has been an active promoter of ObamaCare -- a law that I believe is fundamentally wrong in its approach to improving our nation's health care system. Dr. Murthy also has advocated for policies that would erode our important Second Amendment rights. For these reasons, I will oppose Dr. Murthy's nomination for Surgeon General.

Thank you again for your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Pat Toomey
U.S. Senator, Pennsylvania

 

[Chopstick]

That was fast.
http://www.sunherald.com/2014/03/14/5416655/white-house-backing-off-push-for.html

The White House is backing off its push for quick confirmation of President Barack Obama's pick to be surgeon general in the face of opposition from the National Rifle Association and concerns among Democrats up for re-election who don't want to take another tough vote on a controversial nominee.

Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, up for re-election this year in Alaska, cited his lifetime NRA membership in a letter to constituents who have contacted him on the Murthy nomination.

"While the Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on Dr. Murthy, I have already told the White House I will very likely vote no on his nomination if it comes to the floor," Begich said in the letter, according to his office. He said that besides concerns about Murthy's position on gun control, he also is concerned about Murthy's political advocacy and lack of experience as a practicing physician.

Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who practiced medicine for 25 years, has been pushing against Murthy on the same grounds and said the White House isn't doing a very good job of preventing confirmation battles.

"The White House was terribly embarrassed that their nominee for the Justice Department failed," Barrasso said in a telephone interview Friday from Ukraine, where he was with several lawmakers amid turmoil in the country. "I don't think they saw it coming. They had (Vice President) Joe Biden in the chair to break a tie and it wasn't even close."

 

[JBS]

That's the power of the internet.