Dr. Young in the Washington Times—Stalkers Don’t Stop, But Arming Victims Would Help
The surest safeguard against an obsessed admirer is a gun…read more .
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When a Psychiatrist Shoots to Kill
When a Psychiatrist Shoots to Kill
A doctor defended himself and others from a violent patient, but he had to break a no-gun policy to do so.
By Robert B. Young
‘More might have died if doctor had not shot gunman” — so read the headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 27. On the previous Thursday, a patient, Richard Plotts, entered the office of his psychiatrist, Lee Silverman, M.D., with his caseworker, Theresa Hunt. Plotts then became very upset and killed Hunt with two shots to her ...
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Gun Violence Restraining Orders
Gun Violence Restraining Orders
July 16, 2014
By Robert B. Young, MD
Killers, especially mass murderers, often appear to have some mental illness. They may not have been treated, or were not successfully treated, or their need for treatment wasn’t recognized. Overall, people with mental illnesses are no more likely to commit violence than the general population and are far more likely to become victims. 1 However, there are a few major psychiatric problems (for example, paranoid delusions,...
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Guns, Surgeons General, and Public Health Policy
President Obama’s troubled nomination of Vivek Murthy, MD to become the nation’s next Surgeon General raises important questions of policy and politics. The political is pretty obvious. Dr. Murthy is an accomplished physician at the age of 36 with a fascinating personal history, having been born in Britain to Indian parents. He is now at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital teaching for Harvard Medical School following education at Harvard and Yale in medicine and management. He co-founded “...
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NASP’s Anti-Gun Agenda: Truths and Half-Truths
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) has published what it calls a fact sheet about “gun violence” among youth. DRGO has been informed that the Arizona Association of School Psychologists has submitted this flawed publication to the Arizona legislature in support of enacting firearm policy. DRGO’s Advisory Board member Glen Otero, PhD has analyzed the claims made in the NASP fact sheet and has determined that it’s full of the half-truths and deliberate omissions that the p...
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Kids and Antigun Hype
Like many people, doctors work to keep up with the torrent of new information in their field. One time-tested learning resource for doctors is the medical journal. In addition to general medical journals that cover a wide spectrum of new medical knowledge, most doctors regularly read at least one journal dealing only with their own specialty.
The American Academy of Pediatrics journal Pediatrics is the go-to learning resource for busy pediatricians. They depend on it to help them meet the cha...
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Gun Control Playbook—If the Facts Aren’t On Your Side, Wave a Bloody Shirt
By Timothy Wheeler, MD
Dave Workman over at TheGunMag.com recently uncovered a gun prohibitionists’ playbook prepared last year by Washington, DC public affairs consultants for use in gun control campaigns. One such campaign is a Washington state ballot initiative, I-594, pushed by the gun control group Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. The story got national buzz last week, with coverage in The Examiner, The Washington Examiner and the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto column.
The...
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The Race-Neutral Right to Keep and Bear Arms
By Timothy Wheeler, MD
With all the ill-will, misunderstanding, and downright meanness swirling around the outcome of the George Zimmerman trial I was glad to see this article in the Los Angeles Times today. The Times even managed to put aside its longstanding bias against gun owners—almost, anyway—to take a look at one of the NRA’s new public faces, Colion Noir. A hip young African-American attorney from Houston, Noir doesn’t fit the L.A. Times stereotype of American gun owners—“old, fat, whit...
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