Anyone go for a Physical lately, and get asked to take "the survey". Gun Control

[Dog Soldier]

RX79G and your point is? We also have the best gun laws ranking number #1. The Anti Gun folks like to also use those numbers.

 

[Squire Western]

I had my yearly physical in October. The same routine as usual, blood tests, EKG, barium enema, etc. No written tests of any kind were presented. I've had the same primary Doctor for 16 years. He's a gun guy and NRA member and belongs to a private shooting club. So he's the last man that is going to ask invasive questions about firearms.

 

[OC-Trainer]

Far more people die from prescription medicine than firearm.

Where are you getting these numbers from? Specifically, where is data that suggests more people die from prescription drug overdoses than firearms in the US?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I have been to the VA for primary care physician visit, physical exam, pre-op tests, so far this month in prep for surgery 7 Dec.
I do not recall being questioned about guns.

As far as suicide goes:
The NAS "Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence" 2013 noted that in 2010 firearms were used in 19,000 of the 38,000 or so suicides; gun suicides were 83% fatal, suffocation suicides were 80% fatal.*

I do not believe Less Guns = Less Suicide (see Japan).

NAS "Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review" (2004) Chapter 7 Firearms and Suicide, did a simulation between suicide rate and firearms suicide as a proportion of suicides (FS/S).
"In particular, we find a negative association between the suicide rate and FS/S: in this simulation, if FS/S is a good proxy for [gun] ownership, gun owners are less likely than nonowners to commit suicide."

Sure, gun owners who commit suicide may be assumed more likely to use a gun than a non-gun owner who commits suicide, but owning a gun is not a predictor of suicidal tendancies. (FS/S - firearms suicide rate vs overall suicide rate - may not even be a good proxy for gun ownership.)**
_________________________
* Right-to-Suicide advocates have listed the top twenty methods and rates of "success" as:
1. 99.0% Shotgun to head
2. 97.0% Cyanide
3. 97.0% Gunshot of head
4. 96.4% Shotgun to chest
5. 96.4% Explosives
6. 96.2% Hit by train
7. 93.4% Jump from height
8. 89.5% Gunshot of chest
9. 89.5% Hanging
10. 78.5% Auto crash
11. 77.5% Household toxins
12. 76.5% Set fire to self
13. 73.0% Structure fire
14. 71.0% Carbon Monoxide
15. 70.0% Hit by truck/auto
16. 65.5% Electrocution
17. 65.0% Gunshot of abdomen
18. 63.0% Drowning ocean/lake
19. 58.5% Stab of chest
20. 51.5% Cut throat
**My kids have told me that some of the best memories they cherish are target practice with me on the mountain, at the abandoned rock quarry, and at the gun club. No way would I crap on those memories by suicide with a gun.

 

[salt&battery]

Where are you getting these numbers from? Specifically, where is data that suggests more people die from prescription drug overdoses than firearms in the US?

google is your friend in 10 seconds you will see he is right

 

[Arizona_Mike]

About 84 people commit suicide every day in this country. A firearm is the most common method. I've seen this come up often and think some guys are reading more into this than there is. You're doctor is trying to determine if you are a suicide risk. No more no less.

Suicide means is driven by availability but rates are not. A greater portion are with guns where guns are common, same situation for cities with an easily accessible tall bridge.

Mike

 

[OC-Trainer]

google is your friend in 10 seconds you will see he is right

Humor me... You post the data that supports his claim then.

 

[Dog Soldier]

Humor him he needs it. He has been on the forum 2 years and has two "Likes".

 

[OC-Trainer]

Humor him he needs it. He has been on the forum 2 years and has two "Likes".

See this is this guys MO, to mislead other members and cause problems. I witnessed it at another forum. Right, "nitestalker?"
I had you pegged from day one.

 

[Sam1911]

Oh for heavens sake stop acting like kindergarteners and either post the damned statistic as requested or stop talking about it.

-Your Friendly Neighborhood Staff

 

[RX-79G]

google is your friend in 10 seconds you will see he is right

I googled for 10 minutes, and couldn't come up with solid numbers. There were around 40,000 gun related deaths in 2013, and about 24,000 prescription drug overdoses that year.

But finding the number of people that died from taking THEIR prescription drugs as prescribed is very difficult. A lot of "prescription drug" deaths are from stolen pharmaceuticals, use in conjunction with alcohol and intentional overdoses.

Finding a statistic that shows the drugs themselves are dangerous is not actually easy.

 

[RX-79G]

Suicide means is driven by availability but rates are not. A greater portion are with guns where guns are common, same situation for cities with an easily accessible tall bridge.

Mike

Not really. Suicide rates are higher where guns are more common. It isn't causal, but there is correlation.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/guns-and-suicide/

 

[justice06rr]

I figured it was over a year since my last one, so why not get it done since the Ins. pays for it anyway. The nurse is kind of pleasent and we get along, until she said I was one of the lucky ones selected to take a survey. They know I carry and it never even came up in 5 years that I have used this doctor, only because when you go to a doctors office you sometimes need to empty your pockets, or drop your drawers.
So I took a look at the survey, and it asked a lot of round about questions that could be used, "more likely if Obama or Hillary were in office", to make a list of gun owners over 60. Along with a Psycological evaluation, "in a hidden fashion".
So I asked her if she would take such an evasive test, she said no way. I answered good, because I was just going to tell you I was leaving if that was a precursor to taking a physical.
The stupid part is that they had me down for 3 diseases that I never had, on my record. RA, COPD, and something else.
I was realy pissed off that this stuff was on my medical record, along with drugs I have never even taken or perscribed.
So be careful when you go to see your friendly doctor, because we don't know how friendly he really is.

I've been in the healthcare field for a long time. If you have records that are inaccurate, you need to address that with them and have it corrected. What if somehow it got put in there that you have HIV, Cancer, or Diabetes incorrectly? That's a big deal.

As far as the survey, I would decline if possible. If they already know you carry, then it wouldn't matter. It should be your right to decline such a survey, esp if you don't want that information on your medical record.

 

[RX-79G]

A survey is often a tool to collect relevant, useful data from a population so that health care can have useful statistics to work from.

I don't know if it is such a good idea that gun owners tend to try and conceal that fact. There is a big difference between the kinds of policies gun owners can expect when they are thought to be 20% of the population vs. 60%.

 

[scaatylobo]

To answer the OP's question.

I wear my gun to any and every Dr. visit I have [ except for actual surgery = they really frowned on that one ].

So all my care providers know I own and carry,NONE have asked me if I own a gun.

They have had their PA ask if I am depressed,and I said hell no !.

End of the intrusive questions [ other than about my sex life ].And I enjoy bragging at my age !!.

 

[RPRNY]

Drug Overdoses (of prescription and illegal drugs) account for several thousand more deaths per annum than firearms deaths. Only about half of those are from prescription drug deaths. Although, how many heroin overdoses are the result of earlier addiction to overprescribed opioids is unclear.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/

Doctors are not giving such surveys only to determine whether one constitutes a suicide risk. There are numerous ways in which data about firearms ownership collected via "medical surveys" can be used by various different entities. Such surveys and questions about firearms ownership may be mandated by federal or state entities. To suggest that none of those entities have nefarious objectives is naïve at the very least.

 

[OC-Trainer]

Drug Overdoses (of prescription and illegal drugs) account for several thousand more deaths per annum than firearms deaths.

The link is broken.
However, we are still waiting for the original member (dog soldier) who made this claim, to provide data to support it.
He specifically stated that prescription drug ODs account for more deaths per year (in the US) than firearms.
I've yet to see any data that supports that.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

Where are you getting these numbers from? Specifically, where is data that suggests more people die from prescription drug overdoses than firearms in the US?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/18/health/drug-overdose-deaths-2014/
http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm

 

[OC-Trainer]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/18/health/drug-overdose-deaths-2014/
http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm

Thank you for posting those. He stated prescription drugs as it relates to the thread. His direct quote was:

Far more people die from prescription medicine than firearms. Should your Doctor notify you of the deaths connected to his prescriptions?

He is incorrect and hopefully he will provide us his "special" data.

See post #36

 

[RPRNY]

The link is broken.
However, we are still waiting for the original member (dog soldier) who made this claim, to provide data to support it.
He specifically stated that prescription drug ODs account for more deaths per year (in the US) than firearms.
I've yet to see any data that supports that.

Can't fix the link unfortunately. But the data does not support the claim that there are more deaths from prescription drugs per annum than firearms deaths. Something like two thirds of the number of total firearms deaths can be accounted for from prescription drugs. There is however a case to be made that of the heroin related deaths, a fair number must be ascribed to original over prescription of opioids in the first place.

https://www.dea.gov/docs/2015 NDTA Report.pdf

 

[Ohen Cepel]

It's a lib agenda they are pushing. IF they were concerned about you or your kids they would ask about pools, med storage, driving habits, Drano storage, etc, since all of them kill more people than a firearm in the home.

If my plumber starts to ask me about my bank account I would NOT be nice to him. So, I have no idea why my doc thinks they have the right to ask me about things which are NONE of their business. And NO, I do not buy the suicide lie from them.

 

[Gtscotty]

Wyoming has the highest suicide rate in the US at 29.6 out of 100,000. That's 6.6 more than even Alaska, and 17 more than the national average.

What are you suggesting with the inclusion of this factoid?

 

[Deaf Smith]

Well, at the physical I had.. I first to took off my Glock 26 from it's IWB holster and handed it to the Nurse, then my Glock 43 in the shoulder holster and put that in her other hand, and then my Glock 42 in the ankle holster which the Dr. put in his coat.

After that the doctor didn't ask many questions.

Deaf

 

[RX-79G]

What are you suggesting with the inclusion of this factoid?

Everyone on this thread seems pretty cavalier about suicide - just a choice people make. Those who have had their spouses or kids kill themselves rather than getting help for depression would not see it that way. Nor does the medical profession.

I posted the Wyoming stat because it seemed to contrast so much with the way people talk about the freedom, safety and happiness gun people like to associate with states like that. And rather than submit yet another bad social theory in a thread full of them, I dropped that tidbit so people will think a little bit more about their assumptions.

I have no idea if guns make people more likely to end their lives or not. I think it is a shame when people in their prime die, and that includes when they do it to themselves. But I do think that doctors would like to have good stats to understand what is going on, and while that may have political ramifications in how the data is used, data is data.

 

[PBR Streetgang]

My Doc always asks, but he likes going to the range to play with my new toys !