Oh, that rascally Rand Paul and his principled stands…
On Wednesday — two years to the day after George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) placed a hold on President Barack Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, over Murthy’s view that gun violence represents a significant public health threat.
“In his efforts to curtail Second Amendment rights, Dr. Murthy has continually referred to guns as a public health issue on par with heart disease and has diminished the role of mental health in gun violence,” wrote Paul in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“As a physician, I am deeply concerned that he has advocated that doctors use their position of trust to ask patients, including minors, details about gun ownership in the home… Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to use that position to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.”
But Paul is actually out of step with most physicians. The idea that gun violence is a danger to public health is utterly uncontroversial among doctors’ groups, academic institutions that focus on public health, and children’s safety advocates. Although Paul criticizes Murthy’s position that physicians and pediatricians should ask patients about the presence of guns in their households, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution in 2011 officially opposing any law that bars doctors from having open conversations about gun safety and the risks of having firearms in a household with their patients.
Of course, guns are projected to be the leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds next year. The list of accidental shootings is staggering. But, if you talk about it honestly, you can’t serve your government.
This doesn’t even have anything to do with the 2nd Amendment. It’s no different than your physician reminding you to keep your opioids locked away so that your kids don’t wind up as skid row junkies. It’s their job to keep you and your family healthy. To do that, they need ask questions about your home environment.
Of course Paul is out of touch with the AMA, which doesn’t recognize the “National Board of Ophthamology” he invented so that he could certify himself.
Ha, my thoughts exactly. I suppose we can take this as the “NBO”‘s position statement.
Oh, and also that means that Views Differ. Teach the controversy!
How many lame, nutcase physicians serve in Congress? If they can’t even understand basic medicine and science, not sure how they got through med school — but it does render them as dangerous as electing dimbulbs like Sarah Palin.
They couldn’t make it as doctors but they could get elected by selling their souls to the Koch brothers. That’s why they have no soul now.
Time to put a hold on this “hold” stuff. Maybe you can delay a week to get some evidence, otherwise, everyone gets their up or down vote, including Republican Presidents appointees. If you have the White House you get to pick your staff unless they are so bad a majority of the Senate finds reason to deny them. And the fault should not be ideological. It should be something like not knowing anything about disaster preparation and relief (FEMA), no diplomatic experience (any State department appointment), et cetera.
Forgot “criminal” i.e. Oliver North.
The more one watches the senate, the more one sees what a cesspool of idiocy and unchecked egotism it is. They sure as hell don’t need “rules” which magnify these tendencies…
An asshole Republican demagoguing gun rights — I’M SHOCKED, I’M SHOCKED!!
If you are watching American politics and aren’t alarmed at just how insane – and insanely violent – the wingnuts have become then you just aren’t paying attention.
This is a group of about 60 million people who fantasize about armed revolution.
And that’s the only explanation for their attitude toward gun laws.
It’s also remarkable how unremarked upon this phenomenon remains.
your Lib’rul Media!
Am remembering last year’s Right wing freakout over whether the ACA would have doctors infringing on families’ privacy by asking if there were guns in the home when they counseled parents with kids.
Sad to see an entire Party struggle so mightily over their own political correctness script.
Remember this is the man whose steadfast anti-drone-iness, and one-man war on the NSA, is going to split the youth vote, reduce the ranks of Clinton voters to a Scoop-Jackson nostalgia rump, and cost the Democrats the White House in 2016.
I know this because I read it here.
Several times.
From someone other than Arthur Gilroy?
“if you talk about it honestly, you can’t serve…”
In Idiot America, reality isn’t permitted to exist.
So of course a responsible MD pointing out the leading cause of youth deaths “infringes” on (made up) second amendment “rights” and renders said MD unfit for public service. One must genuflect before the Holy Weapons Alter, and often. Soon, mentioning guns with anything other than undying adoration for every last weapon will render one a gun-banning infringer of sacred liberty.
Guns from America’s millions of home arsenals kill a lot of nice little kiddies, accidentally and intentionally. And how many wives and girlfriends have their brains blown out by their arms-bearing beloveds? Gun nuts (male and female) couldn’t care less, and are frankly dismissive of this as just another non-problem focused on by Tyrannical Lib’rul Fascists.
The thousands of gun deaths are simply collateral damage required for Our Tru Freeedumz! That’s what a truly responsible “surgeon general” would know! Also, too, the Founders! Or something….just keep waving the bloody gun, Dr Demagogue!
Guns do not kill people. People with guns kill people: end of story. Was that difficult? Personally I would be concerned if most Doctors were not asking gun ownership questions.
I wonder. If someone were to bring a four year old child to the emergency room because his six year old brother accidentally shot him, would it be OK then for the doctors and nurses to ask about gun ownership in the home? Or would that still by tyranny?