Is Your Doctor A Spy?
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO).
Copyright JPFO May 3, 2000
This is a rebuilt alerts page because of the old but still very valid information. Unfortunately, as occurs over time - some links have ceased to be functional.
Anti-self defense lobbyists have enlisted family-practice physicians and pediatricians into collecting firearms ownership data. Doctors have been receiving literature urging them to ask their patients a lot of detailed questions about firearms ownership.
We received a first-hand report from an ardent JPFO supporter who recently underwent this very type of probing by his doctor. During a physical examination in April 2000, as part of obtaining a "medical history," the doctor asked the patient:
- Do you have any guns?
- If so, how many guns do you have?
- Where are they located?
- Where do you store the guns?
- How much ammunition do you keep?
This line of questioning presents three dangers. First, the "public health" argument for victim disarmament has successfully filtered from the lobbyists down to actual practitioners. Some doctors actually believe that firearms are dangerous like an open jar of smallpox bacillus.
Second, patients generally trust their doctors and will submit to these intrusive questions. Not only that, many patients will think the questions are proper and justified … because their doctor asked them. Our JPFO supporter refused to answer most of these questions -- but many other patients will simply comply.
Third, although medical records are supposed to be confidential, that can all change in a heartbeat. There have been repeated moves in Congress to mandate a universal medical health system, or at least a universal medical identification chip. The chip would contain all of a person’s medical records. In both plans the patient’s medical data becomes part of a national data base. When doctors collect firearms ownership data, they are helping to build a national gun owner identification system. Even now senior citizens and others using Medicare and Medicaid are subject to having their medical records reviewed by government agents.
Our JPFO supporter said "no" to this doctor’s intrusive questioning, and asked why the doctor was asking all of these questions. The doctor said it was something the American Medical Association was now pushing. Our JPFO supporter complained to the hospital whose spokesperson said that the firearms questions were not hospital policy and that they would investigate the matter.
What you can do:
(1) Tell everyone you know to refuse to answer doctors’ questions about personal firearms ownership -- even if they don’t own a firearm. Doctors and other health care professionals have no business asking such questions, period.
(2) If your doctor asks questions about your firearms ownership, ask why the doctor is asking, and then report the matter as an invasion of privacy to the hospital.
(3) Encourage doctors to contact and receive information from:
(A) Dr. Edgar Suter, Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research
http://www.dipr.org - (Sorry, link has expired).
Article: Guns in the Medical Literature: A Failure of Peer Review
(B) Dr. Timothy Wheeler, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership
Book: Firearms: A Handbook for Health Professionals.
http://www.claremont.org/1_drgo.cfm"> (Sorry, page no longer available).
(C) Dr. Miguel Faria, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
http://www.haciendapub.com
Article: Docs, Guns & the CDC
Subscribe to The Medical Sentinel (912) 757-9873
Date: June 9, 2000
Is Your Doctor A Spy -- Part 2
Our May 3, 2000 Alert revealed how doctors are now starting to gather information about firearms and their owners as part of the medical history. We shared the experience that one of our supporters had in April during a physical exam.
After our supporter refused to give the firearms information to the doctor, our supporter (the patient) contacted the hospital and lodged a complaint. The hospital has not yet returned with a response to the complaint, but the doctor did react.
By letter dated May 15 to our supporter, the doctor withdrew "from further personal attendance" as his physician. Citing "our differentiating [sic] opinions on how to provide quality care," the doctor abruptly terminated his relationship with our supporter.
Refusing to cooperate with the victim disarmament agenda put the pressure on the doctor, and the doctor ran away from the confrontation. If everyone refuses to give doctors their personal information about firearms ownership, then the doctors will give up this intrusive agenda.
Simple resistance is powerful resistance. And it works when you resist early enough. Just say "no." Just don’t give up information and don’t voluntarily cooperate with the government informers, be they doctors or anybody else.