http://time.com/5310601/american-medical-association-gun-violence/ They support a ban on assault weapons, not arming teachers, raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, licensing gun owners, safety courses for gun owners, registering all guns, court ordered removal of guns from suicidal people and people who have made threats to commit violence, better training of doctors so that they can recognize people at risk for committing suicide, and closing loopholes which allow domestic violence offenders and stalkers to buy guns. Which of these proposals do you agree with? Can we find some common ground?
I wonder why no mention is made of Tobacco related deaths ? Could it be that as long as Guns are not involved, the death toll is fine ? We are speaking of Tobacco which has zero redeeming value, people spend money on an addiction voluntarily, and would rather take money from their children's mouths rather than quit smoking. Tobacco is a major source of revenue to the Government and a great burden at the same time, deaths related to guns, are small in comparison. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm
Diseases and Death Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.1 More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking. For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis. Smoking is a known cause of erectile dysfunction in males. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.2 Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.1 On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.3 If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.1 Costs and Expenditures The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year on cigarette and smokeless tobacco advertising and promotions.4,5 In 2016, $9.5 billion was spent on advertising and promotion of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco combined—about $26 million every day, and more than $1 million every hour. Price discounts to retailers account for 66.7% of all cigarette marketing (about $5.8 billion). These are discounts paid in order to reduce the price of cigarettes to consumers. Smoking costs the United States billions of dollars each year.1,6 Total economic cost of smoking is more than $300 billion a year, including Nearly $170 billion in direct medical care for adults6 More than $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke1 State spending on tobacco prevention and control does not meet CDC-recommended levels.1,7,8 States have billions of dollars from tobacco taxes and tobacco industry legal settlements to prevent and control tobacco use. However, states currently use a very small amount of these funds for tobacco control programs.1,7,8 In fiscal year 2018, states will collect a record $27.5 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements but will only spend $721.6 million—less than 3%—on prevention and cessation programs.8 Currently, not a single state funds tobacco control programs at CDC’s “recommended” level. Only two states (Alaska and California) provide more than 90 percent of recommended funding. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia are spending less than 20 percent of what the CDC recommends. Two states (Connecticut and West Virginia) have allocated no state funds for tobacco use prevention.8 Spending 12% (i.e., $3.3 billion) of the $27.5 billion would fund every state tobacco control program at CDC-recommended levels.
Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. Are 30,000 deaths worse than 480,000 ? Somebody's maths are off...... A bit.... Or a lot...... Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. Key word, preventable, and A.M.A. is in a lather over suicides but silent on 480,000 deaths ? What gives ?
Physicians have become subjective hysterical whinging idiots, rather than remain dispassionate objective professionals ?
Suicide cannot be prevented, if you start taking action against so called "people at risk of suicide" do you think those people will not simply go underground with their intentions ? Did no one learn a single thing from Prohibition ? Prohibtion created problems, Prohibition solved nothing. Simply making a wall is not going to stop illegal drugs from making it into the U.S. as the profit motive is too high. Smuggling, if the profit motive is high enough, they will find a way to get Cocaine, Mexicans, Guns into the U.S. if Guns are severely restricted or even outright banned. It will be prohibition all over again.
Doctors are like Priests, they see things through the lens of their vocations. Both make mistakes, and sometimes, don’t follow their own advice. On guns doctors and priests might find common ground, but bring up assisted suicide and... I am no Doctor nor am I a priest and regarding guns, given the years dishonesty and concealed motives of the anti clack, there is no basis for trust to find common ground.
Frankly, I'll accept doctors' recommendations on guns when they accept my recommendations on medicine. They support nonsense for the most part. Banning so-called "assault weapons"? Hyperbole, rhetoric, and ignorance. Not arming teachers? Why do the gun haters recoil so savagely at the thought of common sense security measures to protect our children? Raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm? So, people old enough to serve in the military, who often have families of their own, should be denied the right of self-defense? Licensing, safety courses, registration - ALL violate the core of the Second Amendment and Constitutional liberty. As for enhanced protections against people who have been legally adjudicated as violent or a risk to society? I can see that... provided protections are in place to prevent malicious and slanderous accusations that would disarm someone without justification.
Nothing presented can be accepted and agreed with, because nothing that has been presented will ultimately amount to any meaningful difference. The American Medical Association is doing nothing more than political lobbying that has nothing to do with medicine, and are now establishing themselves as being politically biased. They have chosen to sacrifice their credibility, and are not fit to be dismissed out of hand.
It's easy to defend lax gun laws from the safety of your keyboards. It's much harder to defend such laws when you work in a hospital and regularly witness deaths and injuries due to gun violence.
But Russia and Mexico have strict gun laws, and their homicide rates are much higher than hours. Perhaps it's not just about laws, or perhaps we should address the enforcement of laws. Do these countries continuously allow those who break gun laws to go uncharged for those crimes? To get to the same level of laws, including bans, that these countries have, you'd have to overturn the Second Amendment. You can count to 13, right?
There are no Laxitive Gun Laws. Only hardened Criminals that kill regardless of Laws. There is no Gun Violence, only Criminal acts and Murder that pre-dated Guns.
Spare me. I served as a law enforcement officer, on the streets, at far greater risk than any hospital employee... and my problem wasn't with the gun laws, it was with our failures as a society.
How many of the aforementioned deaths and injuries can be directly connected to the legal ownership and use of firearms, compared to illegal firearms possession and use by those who cannot legally possess them? What are the percentages of each category?
Three words come to mind when the AMA starts howling for more gun bans: "Physician, heal thyself." "Medical Errors Are Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S." https://www.usnews.com/news/article...rs-are-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us EXCERPT "MEDICAL ERRORS ARE THE third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer, causing at least 250,000 deaths every year, according to an analysis out Tuesday indicating that patient safety efforts fall far short. "People don't just die from heart attacks and bacteria, they die from system-wide failings and poorly coordinated care," says the study's lead author, Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It's medical care gone awry."CONTINUED
There is no such thing as an "Assault Weapon". That term was created in the mid-80's by the anti-gun wackos to label any gun they do not like. Oh, and I don't agree with any of those proposals.
Try to think of it this way. You are far more likely to die due to medical incompetence from hospitals than you are by firearms. "Medical Errors Are Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S." https://www.usnews.com/news/article...rs-are-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us EXCERPT "MEDICAL ERRORS ARE THE third leading cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer, causing at least 250,000 deaths every year, according to an analysis out Tuesday indicating that patient safety efforts fall far short. "People don't just die from heart attacks and bacteria, they die from system-wide failings and poorly coordinated care," says the study's lead author, Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It's medical care gone awry."CONTINUED