TO THE EDITOR:
I am angered and appalled by the recent articles on firearms [1, 2]. Once again the liberal tendencies of ACP have become apparent in its attempt to turn a political issue into a medical one. The papers are flawed not only by biased and nonfactual data but by the political agendas of their authors. Because no room was provided for rebuttal, I therefore give you my positions on firearms.
Position 1: To not only continue to provide financial support for progun organizations but to increase that funding at every possible opportunity. At the same time, to promulgate the economic boycott of every company, organization, or person with an antigun agenda.
Position 2: To keep and provide pro-Second Amendment literature in the office where it would be prominently displayed. In addition, to speak frankly to patients and colleagues who seek counseling on self-defense issues and provide educational links supporting a pro-Second Amendment stance.
Position 3: To continue to recruit physicians, health professionals, patients, and victims of violent crime into the shooting sports and into political activism regarding their Second Amendment rights.
Position 4: To continue to support the political system, and the citizens within it, that protects Second Amendment rights.
Position 5: To strongly support gun training and gun safety organizations such as the National Rifle Association-sponsored Eddie Eagle Program, which has proven efficacy.
To quote David Kopel [3], "The anti-gun health advocacy literature is a ‘sagecraft’ literature in which partisan academic ‘sages’ prostitute scholarship, systematically inventing, misinterpreting, selecting, or otherwise manipulating data to validate preordained political conclusions. The speciousness and atavistic, insidious malignancy of all opposition to gun control being presumed, there is no need for health advocacy periodicals to waste space on such views or time in evaluating inconsistent evidence."
In short, the gun control papers are no better than propaganda and stoop to the level of another antigun proponent, one Joseph Goebbels.
1. Cassel CK, Nelson EA, Smith TW, Schwab CW, Barlow B, Gary NE. Internists' and surgeons' attitudes toward guns and firearm injury prevention. Ann Intern Med. 1998; 128:224-30.
2. Firearm injury prevention. American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 1998; 128:236-41.
3. Kopel D, ed. Guns: Who Should Have Them? Prometheus Books; 1995:235-6.
Top
Author & Article Info
References
Article
