Should Doctors Have Guns?

The author, a doctor, makes the case that in our climate of daily random violence and desperate drug addicts, a doctor would be wise to have a gun in his office. He brings up the example of emergency rooms having metal detectors and bullet proof glass because shootings have actually occurred there. So he asks:

Would you not see a doctor if you knew he had a gun in his office?

To those who would fear ....... I ask you this, why would a doctor having a gun bother you? Do you live in fear that your physician is trying to kill you? I mean if he really wanted you dead, he could stab you with a scalpel or inject you with something lethal. He could do so with the tools of his profession in a much more efficient manner than with a gun.

http://brainblogger.com/2008/05/09/s...ors-have-guns/
I have an RN license, and I also have a concealed weapon permit. I'm licensed to care, and I'm licensed to carry. I think you can figure out how I feel on this issue.

I think it's ridiculous. Extending that logic, then we all should be packing pistols We can have gunfights at high noon at the OK Corral!

I don't know; just like there are general crazies running around out there, there are a few docs I've met who have such horrible temper problems. I'd honestly be afraid of them if they were armed.I'd only want our docs to carry guns if the NURSES each got one, too. Frankly, though, in the end I'd probably kill two doctors in particular...or at least shoot their car windows out in the morning.

They have the same right as everyone to carry a gun. They should be careful to comply with the laws of community in which they reside. It would be a good idea to take a firearms class. A series of firearms classes is even better idea. And I say to them and everyone else, please take precautions to keep guns from falling into the wrong hands. Kids know where the keys to the gun cabinet are and they know where the ammo is also. People think they keep things from their kids but they know just about everything you know.

I agree they have the same right to carry a gun as everyone else but I don't see most docs bringing their gun into the office with them. They would have to carry it from their office after consultations into the exam room and throughout the whole office if they wanted to have it with them at all times. If they put it in a holster under their lab coats it would still be seen and I think many patients would be fearful and leery. I don't want my doc examining me with a gun but that's me.

I used to know a doctor who carried a gun in an ankle holster when he visited patients on the unit (locked psych). I know because he showed it to us. He had been attacked by a patient in a parking lot before then. Years later, after showing us the gun, he tazered a patient in his office, who attacked him. He was fired for not following protocol and calling for security (he was an employee of the facility rather than in private practice)...

While the author of the article a Doctor brings up the question. Note , he himself does not have a gun in his office.Yes, we have guns in our home. I personally do not like it. But loved one does. Fortunately they are not where the grandkids can get at them when they visit.

"licensed to care and licensed to carry..."That's good,can I borrow it? I like it for a bumper sticker on my car,LOL.

Quote from FireStarterRNI think it's ridiculous. Extending that logic, then we all should be packing pistols We can have gunfights at high noon at the OK Corral!

I'm not particularly "anti gun", but it's ridiculous to be packing a gun to work in a clinic. Frankly, I'd refuse to live or work in such a violent and unprotected area. I don't care to live or work in such a place. What if every citizen was packing a gun? I think that's a bad idea. Let's say everyone chose to do this. Would you feel safer? I wouldn't. I think people would end up shooting each other more. People would lose their tempers and a certain percentage would pull their guns. You'd be living in anarchy.

Quote from FireStarterRNI'm not particularly "anti gun", but it's ridiculous to be packing a gun to work in a clinic. Frankly, I'd refuse to live or work in such a violent and unprotected area. I don't care to live or work in such a place. What if every citizen was packing a gun? I think that's a bad idea. Let's say everyone chose to do this. Would you feel safer? I wouldn't. I think people would end up shooting each other more. People would lose their tempers and a certain percentage would pull their guns. You'd be living in anarchy.

NZL has some pretty strict gun laws and while gangs are making a mint sneaking in some "pistol" type guns, usually people can only legally get farm and hunting rifles and guns. Its easy to get a gun license and a 202 depending on where you go, but I"d like to see a doctor hide a 202 under his coat.The reality is people don't really need a gun to do any damage, we don't have "drive by shootings" here we tend to have "drive by, jump out of your car, and take a machete, chain and cricket bat to the guy's head" bys. Its kinda endeering really.Anyway, while I want a gun and am planning on getting one for clay bird and target shooting, I wouldn't really carry it around - my awesome ninjaness would protect me from any wayward maniac antics. But America is a totally different culture to the one I was raised in - where you don't **** about locking yoru doors at night.If the doctor feels a true need for one, is legal to carry and can conceal it, then I don't see why they can't - as long as whatever poopies hit the fan they're ready to take the heat.