Hospitals Internet gun site blockers

Is this common place? Is their any legitimacy in their desire to squelch my gun addiction? There are ways to contact the system mods and make requests but I figured if this was a policy then I wasn't likely to change their minds without difficulty. Not something I wanted to get into at this time.

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It may be a deliberate attempt by right leaning staff or administration to impose their own world view on the patients and visitors. Many health related organizations are after all strongly anti-gun. It may also just be part of a generic internet "security" package set up to block all sorts of "non-PC" website and the hospital doesn't even know.

Most medical people are virulently opposed to violence, period. They would view an estranged husband who broke into his wife's home with a baseball bat as the "victim" if the wife shot him. Their blockage of any web site having to do with weapons or what they regard as violence accurately reflects their worldview.

F'rinstance, when I was in college, I was walking down the street in Iowa City when I was assaulted by a drunk (later identified as a convict out on parole). When I got up, he attempted to strike me again, so I sprayed chemical mace (the original) in his face, and got away from him. I had a badly split lip, and was treated with great consideration at the University hospital UNTIL I TOLD THEM I HAD MACED HIM. From that point on, I was treated like I was out looking for trouble (because I was prepared for it) and deserved what I got.

Much the same attitude prevails today in regard to those of us who choose to carry concealed weapons for self-protection. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

I am a physician here in California and yes my hospital restricts access to sites, including gun sites through it's wired and wireless networks.

However I am very pro-gun ownership and the second amendment. As well as many of my colleagues who I go shooting with. Please be careful lumping groups of people together even though I agree with the general statement about California and it's views on guns

You guys need to study internet security a bit more before you say the "hospital blocked me". In 9/10 cases WEAPON sites are lumped in with PORN sites and FREEWARE/SOFTWARE sites... Its a general blockage of ALL things that are considered a threat to their network security.

You can't block all sites nor can you allow some and block others (within reason).

Go to any place of business that uses a popular brand of filtering and you will get the same result. While my company blocks MOST weapons sites, for some reason THR is not on the list. We also block CNET though, because its a FREEWARE/SOFTWARE site.

Where I work we pickup a large percentage of virus and malware from gun websites. The sites are allowed but they cause problems for our IT types.

If your business doesnt have a market in firearms then blocking those sites could be in the employer's best interest.

I used to work in a hospital in MA, they also blocked firearm websites.

I dont believe it's politically motivated or that they are "opposed to the violence caused by guns"...... I think it's mostly due to the suits trying to cover their behind.

they are under enough scrutiny as it is, the last thing they need is some 2-bit journalist claiming they are promoting 'questionable content'....

This is commonplace. It's not guns per se but "weapons" sites that are blocked. Thinking is that for employees, well it's a hospital and nobody needs to be looking at weapons websites because that's not hospital business. Same as Facebook, Netflix, Hulu, porn of course, etc.

Why they'd block that on a guestnet is not so clear. About the only thing we block on our guestnet is porn and "hate" stuff.

There are services that one subscribes to and they classify websites into these categories, "weapons", "streaming media", "social media", probably a hundred others.

Most likely the hospital administrators looked at the list handed them by the IT guys, drew lines through the ones they thought should be blocked while the guy stood there, and off he went. I doubt that in most cases much thought is given to this sort of thing and thus "weapons" gets nixed as a matter of course. Presumably a lot of these folks don't even know what "weapons" sites even are...sound kind of ominous...so it gets nixed.

I suspect there are some hospitals and other business that have explicit policies against "weapons" sites but frankly, most hospitals operate on such a razor thing margin that they simple can't afford to have a committee of people sitting around worrying about this kind of stuff. So weapons get nixed along with the porn.

Are you sure it was the hospital's doing? Could be that their ISP is providing "filtered" service. Usually aimed at porn, but it can also block lots of other stuff.

they own the system,they can permit what they want

Hypnogator writes, based on one personal experience:

Most medical people are virulently opposed to violence, period. They would view an estranged husband who broke into his wife's home with a baseball bat as the "victim" if the wife shot him.

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I could not agree more with the first sentence. Most people in general are virulently opposed to violence.

I could not disagree more with the second sentence. If you don't know why, you never will.

I'm curious to know if you can pull up websites with The Holy Bible on 'em.

Most medical people are virulently opposed to violence, period.

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Aren't most people in general opposed to violence? It is my distinct hope that I can make it through this life without ever having to assault another human being, even in self defense.

They would view an estranged husband who broke into his wife's home with a baseball bat as the "victim" if the wife shot him.

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Now you're just being silly.

Their blockage of any web site having to do with weapons or what they regard as violence accurately reflects their worldview.

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It likely has little to do with that at all. And for the record we spend just as much time sitting around in the hospital talking about guns and hunting as people do at most any other job. Lots of us own guns and enjoy shooting animals.

As for the OP's question: A lot of companies restrict access to firearms sites. My wife has worked for a number of large corporate entities and they all banned firearms websites to some degree or other. It's not an uncommon occurrence. As for banning it on the guest net, it's probably just because they use the same software on all their servers instead of customizing it for each application.

It probably is their way of drumming up business. They know that an armed society is a polite society. So, they fight any ownership/use of firearms by lawful folk.

They love the crime rate in places like Chicago, and NYC. It's only good business sense.

It probably is their way of drumming up business. They know that an armed society is a polite society. So, they fight any ownership/use of firearms by lawful folk.

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You apparently haven't followed the thread, don't understand how hospitals operate, or understand that the Heinlein paraphrasing is from a fictional book and doesn't actually work in the real world. It isn't a conspriacy. It really isn't.

Most content filtering systems provide basic templates for how strict they want the filtering to be. For example, there might be a template named "High" that would block anything that's not work related, one named "Medium" for anything that might be deemed offensive (which may include guns), and one that is "Low" which might block only malware, porn, and warez sites.
In many cases a lazy administrator has set up the content filtering and hasn't delved deeper to disable filtering for things that aren't actually offensive, like guns.

In any case, complain!

I spend a lot of time in a hospital. Their guest Wifi lets me access THR and other gun sites.

No idea on the hard wired stuff. I try to stay off that.

I was in a hospital with the same blocks on firearm and hunting related websites and retailers (no Cabella's) a while ago.

Interestingly though I was able to get to the Budweiser, Jim Beam and Jack Danial's websites. Also, I was able visit websites which sell cigarettes and other forms of tobacco.

It would be interesting to compare the number of patients they treat and the money involved between the topics above.

When I go to the hospital for a check-up or any excuse, I bring a handful of American Rifleman's or what ever I've got around to leave in EVERY waiting room I pass through.

Even if they throw them away that afternoon, I always leave feeling better.

How do these filters "know" THR is a gun site? There is nothing in the name that would indicate it.