OFF THE WIRE
House Bill 2823 was introduced March 16th and not only prohibits doctors
from asking if there are guns in the household, but also recommends
doctors who continue to talk to patients about firearms be punished.
If one Texas lawmaker’s bill is passed, patients may have a few less questions to answer at the doctor’s office.
Stewart Spitzer (R-TX) has authored a bill which would essentially bar doctors from talking about guns with their patients. House Bill 2823 was
introduced March 16th and not only prohibits doctors from asking if
there are guns in the household, but also recommends doctors who
continue to talk to patients about firearms be punished.
“Pediatricians are asking children away from their parents, ‘Do you
have guns in your house?’ and then reporting this on the electronic
health records, and then the federal government, frankly, has access to
who has guns and who doesn’t,” Spitzer said in a recent interview about
the proposed legislation. He said he experienced the phenomenon
firsthand when he took his daughter to the doctor, who asked her whether
there were any guns in the house.
While HB2823 has some parents breathing a sigh or relief, the medical community has had a far less enthusiastic reaction.
“We, as physicians, ask all sorts of questions—about bike helmets and
seat belts and swimming pool hazards, dangerous chemicals in the home,
sexual behaviors, domestic violence. I could go on and on,” Gary Floyd, a
Fort Worth pediatrician and board member of the Texas Medical
Association, in an interview with the Texas Tribune.
While the bill would allow doctors to discuss guns with patients
deemed suicidal, Spitzer says that in most cases discussions about
firearms are “not appropriate.” Spitzer, a surgeon, said he wanted to
make sure that doctors “have the right not to ask that.”
Doctors are currently reporting who has access to guns and who
doesn’t based on patient answers to medical questionnaires. I teach my
children to never answer any questions pertaining to our household when I
am not present, but with the feds wanting to weigh children at daycare
facilities and public schools already dictating what foods children
should eat, we need to take every opportunity we can to eliminate the
government’s reach into our homes. HB2823 is a step in the right
direction, but we should all speak to our children about keeping our
families’ business private and out of the government’s intrusive reach
into our parental rights.
