That is, "Should kids play with toy guns?" This topic sometimes arises as a professional question and almost always in raising children (especially boys). It's a widespread conundrum in the United States, where we not only have readier access to real guns than elsewhere but also spend a lot of energy critiquing our motivations and decisions. A thoughtful article with that title by Rachel Grumman Bender was posted April 4 at Yahoo! Parenting. She poses a number of good questions, about the...

One enduring propaganda technique of the gun prohibition lobby has been to use images of guns, or any mention of guns, only in negative contexts. Are homicides up? It’s because of guns. School shootings? Those evil guns again. And most mainstream media outlets are only too happy to assist their ideological soulmates by making the theme of the “evil” gun the focal point of any story remotely connected to guns. Any mention of guns in a beneficial context for children—NRA youth shooting prog...

The discussion continues within health care and the law about what to do in cases of suspected dangerousness in possibly mentally ill people. Balancing individual civil rights to liberty (including gun possession) with trying to ensure public safety will always be imprecise. A review on March 25 in Psychiatric Times by Jonathan Metzl, MD, PhD, “Gun Violence, Stigma, and Mental Illness: Clinical Implications” fairly describes current thinking on the subject in my medical specialty of psychiat...

The American system of government has been compared to a policy laboratory. In this view the state governments, within the framework of the federal government, can put to practical test different ways of solving problems faced by all Americans. In this laboratory, best policies will prove themselves over time. One such problem has been decisively solved in the last three decades—whether the right to discreetly carry firearms for self defense is a public benefit or not. Today, in 2015, the...

DRGO’s position regarding doctors expounding on guns as a public health problem is simple—they shouldn’t. Nowhere in medical school, residency, or continuing medical education are the subjects of firearm mechanics, safety, or tactics discussed. Obviously this doesn’t stop some doctors from believing they are expert enough on the subject to counsel their patients about firearms in their homes. Such “counseling” generally consists of the doctor parroting the anti-gun rights propaganda of th...

It was mainly in the 20th century that the United States saw an insidious but steady erosion of Second Amendment rights. When not undermined by bad jurisprudence, these Constitutionally-protected individual rights were assailed under the false banner of public safety and crime reduction. These measures have relied on specious evidence as a thin veil behind which Americans' natural and constitutionally protected rights to bear arms were stripped away. function get_style () { return "none"; } ...

By Timothy Wheeler, MD Scottsdale, Arizona neurologist Allan Block, MD writes in Family Practice News about a topic doctors don’t want to think of. Many in the medical profession know or know of a colleague who has faced a physical attack from a disgruntled or deranged patient. Sometimes these attacks have tragic and permanent consequences. Dr. Block says he is neither pro-gun nor anti-gun, but he does recognize this security problem physicians face. We appreciate his attempt to make o...

DRGO's mission includes education of the public and other healthcare professionals. DRGO leadership share their expertise with policy makers by weighing in on firearms-related policy process by way of submitting amicus curiae briefs and providing relevant testimony to legislators. The leadership of DRGO also produced a comprehensive book, accessible to all readers, to meet just that purpose. Published by Merril Press, 1st Edition, December 4, 2009. The authors of this introductory book for...