fletcher
Member
As far as gun control proposals go, this is WAY out there:
http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2007/09/06/StateNational/Pharmacist.Proposes.Gun.Control.Measure-2952909.shtml
This is priceless:
http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2007/09/06/StateNational/Pharmacist.Proposes.Gun.Control.Measure-2952909.shtml
Media Credit: DTH photo illustration/Allie Mullin
David Work, former head of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy believes that effective gun control in the United States can be achieved through requiring doctors to write prescriptions for patients to buy ammunition.
Since retiring from leading the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, David Work is promoting a new role for medical prescriptions: gun control.
Work, a former UNC professor of pharmacy law, said he thinks the best way to reduce the number of gun-related crimes is to regulate access to ammunition in the same way doctors regulate drugs - by having physicians prescribe bullets.
"It's a serious proposal," he said. "It's thinking outside the box."
The U.S. ranks highest in the world for civilian firearm possession - a study by the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project in Geneva, found that there are 90 civilian-owned guns in the U.S. for every 100 citizens.
Ammunition is easier to buy than guns, Work said, and individuals who obtain guns illegally can buy bullets at a gun dealer easily if they're 18 or older.
Work said gun and ammunition laws have dangerous loopholes, as illustrated by the Virginia Tech campus shooting that killed 32 students and faculty in April.
The criminal record of the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, was misleadingly clean from a law-enforcement perspective, Work said, but a professional physician quickly would have spotted Cho's mental instability.
"A family physician knows his or her patients," he said.
Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots North Carolina, a gun-owner's advocacy group, supports the easy availability of ammunition and said it prevents a black market that would be impossible for law enforcement to combat.
"Ammunition is very easily produced," he said, adding that he made about 10,000 rounds of ammunition per year when he shot competitively. "In the unlikely event that they succeed in restricting ammunition sales, they will create a black market in ammunition sales that will make meth labs look pale by comparison."
It's the duty of the courts to decide who's fit to bear arms, he said, "not an arbitrary determination by a physician or a psychologist on whether someone is fit to exercise their rights."
Lisa Price, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said she agreed with Work's intentions but not the prescription-based proposal.
"I can see how doctors could see good and bad aspects of someone's character, but I just think this would be difficult to work out," she said.
Price said she preferred a compromise between the current system and Work's idea. She proposed that the rules to buy ammunition should be the same as those to buy a gun.
"We've already got a model of checking into someone's background," she said. "I think the same laws that apply to buying a gun should apply to buying bullets."
Work said a new system is necessary, even if it's not his prescription-bullet proposal.
"Because what we've got does not work for the safety of the people."
Contact the State & National Editor at [email protected].
This is priceless:
Then what makes you think they won't also obtain ammunition illegally?Ammunition is easier to buy than guns, Work said, and individuals who obtain guns illegally can buy bullets at a gun dealer easily if they're 18 or older.
