The www site has a link to the complete article, which is probably complete crap.

http://www.latimes.com/science...-20171010-story.html

'Guns kill people,' and leading doctors want to treat them like any other threat to public health


By Melissa Healy•Contact Reporter

October 10, 2017, 4:00 AM

The doctors who lead the medical profession’s debates on how best to preserve and restore our health are done with moments of silence in the face of gun-related violence.

In the wake of a mass shooting that killed 59 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas, they neither minced words nor observed political niceties in describing the threat that firearms pose to Americans’ health.

“Guns kill people,” Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor in chief of the influential Journal of the American Medical Assn., and a team of colleagues wrote in an editorial published online Monday. “Guns do not make individuals, their families, or homes safer and they result in far more deaths to loved ones than to an intruder intending to cause harm.”

Such claims are certain to inspire howls of protest from gun-rights advocates. However, in keeping with the tradition of JAMA and other research journals, Bauchner and his co-authors preempted such claims not with heated rhetoric but with with footnotes to studies that support their argument.

One of the earliest studies they cited showed that, in Washington’s King County, 54% of all 743 firearms-related deaths that occurred between 1978 and 1983 took place in the home where the gun had been kept. Only two of these 398 deaths — not even 1% — were cases of an intruder shot during an attempted entry, and seven other people were killed in self-defense.

What’s more, among the fatalities that involved a firearm kept in the home, accidental deaths were 30% more common than self-protection homicides. Suicides involving firearms were 37 times more common than self-protection homicides. The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A more recent study published this year in JAMA Internal Medicine found that Florida’s adoption of a “stand your ground” law, which broadened homeowners’ right to use lethal force in self-defense, was linked to an “abrupt and sustained increase” in homicides by firearm.

In the Annals of Internal Medicine — a journal almost universally read by the nation’s 200,000 primary-care doctors — editor in chief Dr. Christine Laine and deputy executive editor Dr. Darren B. Taichman had similarly run out of patience after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

“More silence is not the answer,” wrote Laine, Taichman and Bauchner along with the top editors of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen) and the open-access journal PLOS Medicine (Dr. Larry Peiperl). With firearms claiming an average of 93 lives per day in the United States — more than half by suicide — guns are responsible for more deaths than vehicle crashes or terrorism.

Many Americans have become accustomed to the threats posed by guns. But an event like Las Vegas should not lose the power to shock, the five journal editors wrote.

“What would happen if on one day more than 50 people died and over 10 times that many were harmed by an infectious disease in the United States?” they asked. “Healthcare professionals would sound the alarm. We would demand funding. We would go to conferences to learn what is known and what we should do. We would form committees at our institutions to plan local responses to protect our communities.”

The same thing should happen when the threat comes not from a virus or bacterium but from a man-made weapon, they wrote.

A handful of physicians working on the front lines of healthcare already have risked the ire of politicians to speak up about gun violence, the group wrote. “We should be proud of them, but they need all of our help. And so do our patients.”

The journal editors called on their fellow doctors to ask their patients about their ownership of guns, to challenge their belief that those guns increase their safety, and to direct them toward risk-reducing resources “just as you already do for other health risks.”

Physicians should also demand funding for studies and mobilize their employers — hospitals, healthcare groups and universities — to plan campaigns aimed at reducing firearms violence.

“We don't throw up our hands in defeat because a disease seems to be incurable,” the journal editors wrote. “We work to incrementally and continuously reduce its burden. That's our job.”

Here's his picture.

I've never had a doctor stick their meddling nose into whether or not I own guns. I almost wish someone would ask me so that I could stop the exam right there and ask to have the office staff prepare a release of records for me, since I'll never again set foot inside that confused physician's office.

Scalpels commit malpractice too.

Cute article. Too bad it's a mountain of nonsense.

Medical "professionals" kill far more people every year than firearms do.

"Firearm violence" is such a red herring. There is no such thing. There is violence, and it will be there regardless of what inanimate object (if any) is used. I have a safe full of firearms and there isn't a violent one in the bunch. They are all perfect little tools that do only what I ask of them, nothing more.

Based on that criteria, shouldn't Doctors be listed as a threat to public health?

Well if they want to go there. They need to look back at there own practices.
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How Many Die From Medical Mistakes In U.S. Hospitals?

In 2010, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare alone in a given year.

Now comes a study in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the numbers may be much higher — between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death.[/b[]

[b]That would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second.

http://www.npr.org/sections/he...kes-in-u-s-hospitals

I hunt and fish with lots of doctors. All of whom are strong gun supporters and have nice gun collections. Including the evil black rifles. I don't put any stock in this bullshit report. A group of liberal big city doctors maybe, but not rural doctors. Not even debatable.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
The www site has a link to the complete article, which is probably complete crap.

"Probably?" Guaranteed, with crap like this:

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
... in keeping with the tradition of JAMA and other research journals, Bauchner and his co-authors preempted such claims not with heated rhetoric but with with footnotes to studies that support their argument.

One of the earliest studies they cited showed that, in Washington’s King County, 54% of all 743 firearms-related deaths that occurred between 1978 and 1983 took place in the home where the gun had been kept.

That would almost certainly be Dr. Arthur Kellerman's thoroughly discredited "masterpiece." Thoroughly discredited, yet JAMA doctors keep trotting it out repeatedly.

Guess they figure a lie repeated often enough will eventually be believed. Though it seems, in this case, it won't. It seems Americans aren't as stupid as Kellerman and his colleagues believe them to be.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
What’s more, among the fatalities that involved a firearm kept in the home, accidental deaths were 30% more common than self-protection homicides.

Note the not-so-subtle "reasoning." Accidental deaths vs. self-defence homicides. So self-defence uses that did not result in the death of the attacker didn't count?

Right.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Suicides involving firearms were 37 times more common than self-protection homicides.

An oft-regurgitated and just as frequently discredited statistic. Every study ever done has found no correspondence between suicides and firearms ownership.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
A more recent study published this year in JAMA Internal Medicine found that Florida’s adoption of a “stand your ground” law, which broadened homeowners’ right to use lethal force in self-defense, was linked to an “abrupt and sustained increase” in homicides by firearm.

Homicides involving the death of perpetrators of crimes, right?

Cry me a river.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
“What would happen if on one day more than 50 people died and over 10 times that many were harmed by an infectious disease in the United States?” they asked.

If they were people who provoked it in response to committing criminal acts I would think it a good thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
The journal editors called on their fellow doctors to ask their patients about their ownership of guns, ...

If my doctor asks me about that I'll give him one opportunity to reconsider, after which failing to do so he will become my ex-doctor.

Immediately.

quote:

ve never had a doctor stick their meddling nose into whether or not I own guns. I almost wish someone would ask me so that I could stop the exam right there and ask to have the office staff prepare a release of records for me, since I'll never again set foot inside that confused physician's office.

Wow. I agree with you. I would like to add that I am in healthcare but will never belong to the AMA. That is one reason, they do lobby good for docs, as far as insurance bullshit is concerned.

Asking about firearms ownership is a check item on many EHR {electronic health records}. Stupid docs ask that question, none of mine ever have. My internist and I talk guns, his brother works at the LGS. My surgeon goes to the same range. He shoots ARs. He qualified last week to shoot full auto. Of course I live in gun friendly Mississippi. I know you live in Georgia, I could make a referral if needed. More political shit from AMA. Do not overreact.
Oriental Redneck or Jstill could do a phone consult if needed. Dusty 78 as well.

Medical doctors have become slaves to statistics, a trend of society generally, but more pronounced in medicine lately.

quote:

The doctors who lead the medical profession’s debates

As opposed to the doctors who actually do stuff.

Is this like the 'police chiefs' against gun violence?

This looks - in a short read - a lot like other political activist groups that pretend to speak for an entire profession.

Not to discount some that I'm sure are full-fledged antis in the field, but most doctors, surgeons, and health professionals that I've met are great people. And many of them own and a lot of them carry firearms.

In many professions, these groups start. At first it's an employees' association, or a membership group etc. Then it starts putting out a newsletter or a few articles that most of the group agree with. But, sooner or later, it always morphs away from being a group that represents the whole and becomes an agent for itself.

In short, aside from a few regional anomalies and the assholes who wrote this, I don't buy that most - or even a majority - of healthcare professionals at any level are anti-gun.

This is Great Deflection, considering their PUSHING opioids...
BTW, I shoot with a couple of doctors, though I'm sure they don't discuss it much.

quote:

In many professions, these groups start. At first it's an employees' association, or a membership group etc. Then it starts putting out a newsletter or a few articles that most of the group agree with. But, sooner or later, it always morphs away from being a group that represents the whole and becomes an agent for itself.

DEAD ON. I used to belong to a similar group. Wanted me to sign petitions about gun restrictions. A lot of top guys are Liberal DEMOS. The group is headquartered in DC but has tons of whackyland docs.
Even wrote papers. These are BRIGHT Guys, just misinformed. I can provide assistance with gun friendly docs here and I am sure Georgia members might help Para if needed with similar referral LOL

I think 90 percent of the docs I work with own guns. This article is horse shit.

This is Great Deflection, considering their PUSHING opioids..

Oh come on that is over the top. {Kidding}. Latest racket is Suboxone. Big money and Obama pushed it. Docs can now take 100 patients per month, restriction lifted. The training is weekend course, not more. Do not have to be ADDICTIONOLOGISTS. They have special training. CASH ONLY. Retire early.

This is like the MOB. Sell you a solution to a problem they created. JMO

American Public: Doctors should stick to Medicine. You're mechanics of the body, not moral authorities or experts on *anything* else. Treat your patients and shut the fuck up.

Firearms deaths in 2016 rank far below other known problem areas in the country, if not the world.
http://www.snopes.com/causes-of-death-2016/