Skip to main content

Is More Gun Control the Right Prescription?

Image
By
Guns are in the news again.  Here are some incontrovertible facts.
  • Mass murders committed by young males have become a new phenomenon in American life.
  • Individuals who should not be permitted to own a firearm can legally purchase one.
  • Many other advanced nations have much lower incidences of mass killings.
  • There is no political solution to this issue in sight.
I remain skeptical  that restricting guns will make us safer.  I doubt that further legal restrictions against buying guns would apply to criminals who by definition are law breakers.  I concede that we should consider additional barriers to keeping guns away from those who are mentally unstable.  I challenge any reader here to offer a template on how we might accomplish this.  There are tens of millions of Americans with mental illness or a history of mental disease.  What about creepy people or folks who seem angrier than they should be?  Loners? Assuming we could identify these millions of citizens, how would we use this information in the event that some of them wanted to buy a gun? Tell me how you would do this because I haven't a clue here.

Consider these facts.
  •  The vast majority of mentally ill Americans will never commit violence.
  • Medical ethics and privacy regulations do not permit identifying mentally ill people. 
  • New or existing laws would not have prevented most or all of these mass killings.
  • We have no reliable method to predict a person’s violent potential.
Even if we could eliminate these horrible paroxysms of violence – a worthy and necessary societal objective – we should realize that most of the hundreds of thousands of yearly deaths by gun are not mass murders.

Is this the enemy?

An overall reduction of violence will not be solved by incarceration or gathering up guns.  The solution that continues to evade us will be as much from economic social, and educational policies as from our legal response.  I am not ‘blaming society’ for the actions of criminals.  But, I do believe that the solution will be of societal origin. 

I know many gun owners.  I understand their passion in protecting their constitutional right to own a firearm.  They recoil when gun control advocates pose questions such as, ‘why does one person need so many guns?’  They believe that unfettered gun ownership is their right and it is not for others to limit it.  Many of us use the same argument with regard to free speech.  Ugly speech and provocative art are protected.  Haven't we heard protests against offensive art by those who argue 'why should a museum display this filth'?   

Like everyone, I am angry, vexed and ashamed.  As physicians understand, making the diagnosis is often the easy part.
Labels:

Comments

  1. alanstormOctober 11, 2015 at 11:35 AM

    "Is More Gun Control the Right Prescription?"

    Put that bluntly, no.

    Everyone agrees that keeping guns out of the hands of mentally-ill people with violent tendencies is a good thing. As always, the devil's in the details, as you point out.

    Unfortunately, all we hear from the left are prescriptions that would not have prevented the crime du jour.

    Unless and until they come up with something workable, that answer's NO.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 17, 2019 at 1:59 PM

    If gun stores could have their own psychiatrist to legally examine a client before giving them a permit, I think that could work. I think we can include people with anger management issues among those who should not be given guns.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Should Doctors Retire?

By
I am asked with some regularity whether I am aiming to retire in the near term.  Years ago, I never received such inquiries.  Why now?   Might it be because my coiffure and goatee – although finely-manicured – has long entered the gray area?  Could it be because many other even younger physicians have given up their stethoscopes for lives of leisure? (Hopefully, my inquiring patients are not suspecting me of professional performance lapses!) Interestingly, a nurse in my office recently approached me and asked me sotto voce that she heard I was retiring.    “Interesting,” I remarked.   Since I was unaware of this retirement news, I asked her when would be my last day at work.   I have no idea where this erroneous rumor originated from.   I requested that my nurse-friend contact her flawed intel source and set him or her straight.   Retirement might seem tempting to me as I have so many other interests.   Indeed, reading and studying, two longstanding personal pleasures, could be ext
68 comments
Read more

The VIP Syndrome Threatens Doctors' Health

By
Over the years, I have treated various medical professionals from physicians to nurses to veterinarians to optometrists and to occasional medical residents in training. Are these folks different from other patients?  Are there specific challenges treating folks who have a deep knowledge of the medical profession?   Are their unique risks to be wary of when the patient is a medical professional? First, it’s still a running joke in the profession that if a medical student develops an ordinary symptom, then he worries that he has a horrible disease.  This is because the student’s experience in the hospital and the required reading are predominantly devoted to serious illnesses.  So, if the student develops some constipation, for example, he may fear that he has a bowel blockage, similar to one of his patients on the ward.. More experienced medical professionals may also bring above average anxiety to the office visit.  Physicians, after all, are members of the human species.  A pulmon
7 comments
Read more

Should Doctors Wear White Coats?

By
Many professions can be easily identified by their uniforms or state of dress. Consider how easy it is for us to identify a policeman, a judge, a baseball player, a housekeeper, a chef, or a soldier.  There must be a reason why so many professions require a uniform.  Presumably, it is to create team spirit among colleagues and to communicate a message to the clientele.  It certainly doesn’t enhance professional performance.  For instance, do we think if a judge ditches the robe and is wearing jeans and a T-shirt, that he or she cannot issue sage rulings?  If members of a baseball team showed up dressed in comfortable street clothes, would they commit more errors or achieve fewer hits?  The medical profession for most of its existence has had its own uniform.   Male doctors donned a shirt and tie and all doctors wore the iconic white coat.   The stated reason was that this created an aura of professionalism that inspired confidence in patients and their families.   Indeed, even today
43 comments
Read more