Doctors asking if there are guns in your home?

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Howland937 said:
In retrospect, I can't say for certain that the actual doctor asked. Could have been a nurse or nurse practitioner. My experiences with being asked were during the Q&A part "Do you smoke? Drink? Do any illicit drugs? Have you travelled to any of these countries in Africa in the last year? Do you have firearms in your home? Do you feel safe in your home? Have you been in jail in Mexico in the last 10 years?"

I just have a clear recollection of being asked on more than one occasion, and the only times I've sought medical attention in the last 10 years were 2 sinus infections, stitches for a nasty dog bite, and surgery for double hernia. Never for anything serious.
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Double hernia, sounds pretty serious, my one was more pain fulL than the hip replacement, I got the single in the hospital from puking after the spinal block for the hip replacement, they figured. :(
 
BigBL87 said:
Never been asked by any of my doctors. My GP was career Army as a doctor and retired in the last few years and moved to this area to practice, so not sure if I'm more or less surprised for him.

On the other hand, a coworker, well now former coworker since he left for the other job, applied to work for the Sheriff's Dept in the next county as a corrections deputy. They asked him how many guns he owns, if he specifically owned any ARs and asked for brands and calibers, etc.. Seemed a bit excessive but I understand it is law enforcement so at least its pertinent in that case.
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Given some county financial situations probably wanted to see what he added to the arsenal in case of a riot.
 
My only guess is it has to do with suicide risks. States with more gun restrictions tend to have lower suicide rates, so maybe its a record-keeping thing?

I can't remember ever being asked though.
 
I used to quail hunt with my GP, so.... yea. Otherwise, I've never had a doctor/nurse/etc. specifically ask me if I owned a firearm. If that ever happened, I figure my patented answer of "huh?" followed by a grin would probably be sufficient. Dodged a lot of question with "huh?".

Mac
 
It’s usually an a standard questionnaire that some busy body wrote up and the practice just uses. My doctor was not even concerned that I didn’t get through half the questions before she was ready for me. I imagine the form still sits incomplete in my file.
 
whughett said:
Double hernia, sounds pretty serious, my one was more pain fulL than the hip replacement, I got the single in the hospital from puking after the spinal block for the hip replacement, they figured. :(
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I remember my dad being livid when they asked him during consultation prior to his hip replacement. I was in the room and after asking them to repeat the question, he replied "what the #$!!@#$ does that have to do with my left hip? I carry on the right!"
I've also been asked when I've taken my son in to his allergist or GI specialist: "does anyone smoke in your home? Do you own any firearms? How often does he go to the restroom?"
Mixed in like they intend to slip it right through. Like I said, was more prevalent a few years ago and haven't been asked lately.
 
My kid's pediatrician asked when my wife first took our daughter in 2015. I forgot to warn my wife, and she answered "yes". They haven't asked again, even with the 2 other kids we've had since then.
 
I guess I've just been lucky in that I have never had a arrogant doctor. All but one have been nice people and the one wasn't arrogant, just dumb and didn't last but two visits. I have never been asked about guns but it's New Mexico. I think they just assume you have one or more and most people do. We still have to travel to Texas for some specialized care that isn't available locally and the question has never come up there either.

The VA takes care of my son's medical needs and he says the question has never come up.
 
It's likely risk assessment information, and I would have no problem with an honest answer if I believed that medical records were truly private. They are not, and often in the course of a disability claim or qualifying for employment medical records releases must be signed. When that happens, third parties have access to information that may not bear on the issue at hand but is there for all to see. Unless relevant to treatment, my response is "not applicable" and if the entry is anything else, the interviewer has falsified protected health information.
 
My Doc asked it at the VA when I went for mental health treatment. He told me it was ok to answer either way but he wanted to make sure I was safe at home but also because the medication he wanted to put me on had multiple uses and he wanted to see if he should code it under one use over the others so as to not draw flags later on.

Oh. He also told me that if I said yes it would be unethical for him or anyone else to use it against me unless they thought I was a danger to myself or others.
 
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Kaiser pediatricians - at least SoCal Kaiser - all ask at every visit. If you answer "yes", you get a 10 second canned lecture about gun safety and storage, delivered with all the enthusiasm of a teenaged usher telling you to enjoy the movie. (If you answer "no" the doc probably breathes an internal sigh of relief and moves on down the list.)

I've never been asked as an adult patient.
 
Never had a doctor ask. Got an NRA life member barber with deer heads on the wall and a pistol on his hip though. Barbers as a species are chatty, so it's nice to shoot the breeze with him.
 
In some states it is required for them to ask the question. And yes, they still ask it because of their liability. 30% of what a doctor does during an appointment is to cover their possible errors. I figure since I have done a background check, someone must know I own at least one gun now or did at one time. Now when I question why, the doc, he just laughs. I should put down, "1 nuclear device". We all have at least one. It's called a smoke alarm. lol
 
My family Doc knows only because of where I worked when I started with him. I can't remember it ever being asked at other Docs over the years. If it was I would just check no rather that pick a battle for no good reason. Kids are long grown but when they were still here I always warned them the answer was no at school, the Doctor or anyone who felt the had reason to ask them. This was before Social media. If I had kids now I would be real careful about putting up anything showing the kids shooting.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
I've never had a civilian doctor ask if I was a veteran.
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Interesting. Makes me wonder if, as was postulated earlier, that some doctors are just using a canned history questionnaire rather than go to all the trouble of writing their own and it happens to contain the gun questions. Lawyers do this all the time, asking if another law firm has a pleading or some other filing they can use and modify, rather than start from scratch. Nobody really thinks twice about it.

Short of a suicide question or the possibility of lead poisoning or some other chemical exposure, I don't see a valid medical reason to ask about gun ownership. It might simply be a statistical thing with a public health agency requesting doctors try to get some sort of data on firearms ownership for suicide counts.

And if you want to be extra safe around lead and various chemicals used on guns, a simple cloth mask while shooting and some nitrile gloves for cleaning and reloading would seemingly be all that is needed. Lead is nasty stuff in the body.
 
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