A visit to the doctor can come with more questions than the SATs.
The bevy of questions are typically a physician's way of understanding the patient's lifestyle and health history. How much do you drink in a week? Do you smoke? Do you exercise?
And: Is there a gun in your house?
That last question is at the crux of a paper written by doctors "Yes, You Can: Physicians, Patients and Firearms" published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Gun violence is a major risk to human health, and doctors have a unique opportunity to ask and counsel patients about firearms as they would other health matters, according to the study.
There have been some 33,000 deaths in the United States caused by gun shots since 2014, according to The Washington Post.
"Firearm violence is an important health problem, and most physicians agree that they should help prevent that violence," Garen J. Wintemute, a public health expert at the University of California Davis and co-author of the paper, told The Washington Post. "No federal or state law prohibits doctors from asking about firearms, counseling about their use, and — when there is imminent risk of harm — disclosing information to others who can help."
Some Florida doctors, however, risk losing their license by asking about gun ownership because of the Firearm Owners Privacy Act, according to The Washington Post. Groups of doctors have sued to overturn the law in the five years since it was passed, according to The Washington Post.
The study indicated that the law makes allowances for doctors to ask about firearms if the questions are relevant to the patient's medical care or safety, or the safety of others, according to The Washington Post. The authors also offer a series of instances when asking about a firearm would be relevant including if a patient abuses alcohol is suicidal or has a history of violence.
About the Author
