# I pit anti-gun pediatricians **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 21, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578 "2013-03-21T22:40:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/101 "2013-03-24T08:06:48Z")
Also, someone who makes a pit thread about something like this certainly pings my radar on the dumb gun owner list. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/102 "2013-03-24T08:45:58Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > It’s just a side-effect of mentally grouping all people into either “yay guns, I love guns, guns are awesome!” or “guns are the devil! I want to take your guns!” > > If you think that way, then I guess anyone saying anything about guns that is not overtly pro-gun-owning is a sign that they’re in Camp Take-Your-Guns. _ **This is why we can’t have reasonable policy debates in this country** _. (bolding mine) I concur. And also, why we can’t have the same, right here on the SDMB? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/103 "2013-03-24T10:25:08Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > It’s just a side-effect of mentally grouping all people into either “yay guns, I love guns, guns are awesome!” or “guns are the devil! I want to take your guns!” It’s kind of mind-boggling to me that someone would assume that a doctor giving a pamphlet about gun safety must necessarily be “anti-gun”. I could very easily imagine that someone who is ardently pro-gun would want families to be as safe as possible with their gun handling and storage to prevent accidents. Even if the pamphlet also contains a sentence stating that the easiest way to prevent gun accidents with kids is not to have guns in the home, that’s just a fact. A good analogy would be abstince-only education. Obviously it’s true that the most reliable and easiest way to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancy is to not have sex. But does that necessarily mean that any safe sex pamphlet that even mentions abstinence as a possibility is totally “anti-sex in all circumstances?” OMG!!! They suggested that _one_ way to to not get chlamydia is to not have sex (along with being selective about choosing partners, using condoms, getting screenings tests, etc…) - those fascist thug doctors want to control our sex lives and they don’t want anyone to ever have sex again and they are dooming the human race to extinction!!!1!1!! ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/104 "2013-03-24T11:45:48Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Not if they ask about guns and not pools. > > Yes, because they are asking everyone this question. Gun owner and non-gun owner. They are basically teaching everyone that guns are particularly dangerous for kids so some parents who don’t know anything about guns will have the impression that owning guns are somehow irresponsible and bad for children when it is clear that pools are far more dangerous than guns. They are giving me all sorts of warnings and precautions about having guns in the home and they never did that with my pool. They even advise getting rid of guns in the home, they never advised cementing over my pool. So if they had asked about guns and pools, and given you safety information about both, would you have been grateful for both those things? This is really a pit thread about “Why doesn’t my pediatrician care about my kid drowning?” Because if so, I honestly think you should bring it up with him and be like “I really wish you would talk to parents about this!” ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/105 "2013-03-24T17:10:25Z")
I’m a childfree female who has been single for most of my life. I’ve never been asked if I feel safe in my home or about guns, but most of my doctors seem _really_ interested in my sex life. Some of the literature I’ve received have advised that abstinence is the only 100% reliable method of avoiding STD’s and getting pregnant. I never thought to get offended about it, maybe I’m just too easy going. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/106 "2013-03-24T18:07:09Z")
I’m thinking if the OP really gave a damn about child safety, he’d get off the internet and work to free his homeland from the insidious onslaught of evil pools. He really fears the freaking pools. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/107 "2013-03-24T21:26:57Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I’m thinking if the OP really gave a damn about child safety, he’d get off the internet and work to free his homeland from the insidious onslaught of evil pools. He really fears the freaking pools. OMG, I was thinking the same thing! FINALLY, someone is standing up to the hideous swimming pools that are terrorizing our nation! Hopefully, there is a group of swimming pool survivors out there who are handing out the SDMB as a resource or something. I’d hate to think that all the SP Traumatized posters on this board are representative of the nation as a whole. That would be just scary. And, remember… ponds are just swimming pools in disguise! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/108 "2013-03-24T21:50:47Z")
I remember watching _Lonesome Dove_ when it got to the part where they were crossing the Brazos River and the young Irish kid falls into a water moccasin orgy and gets killed. So I called my Mom and pointed out that I went fishing on the Brazos about ten thousand times as a kid, and nobody thought to warn me about horny vipers. Turns out I was abandoned by wolves and nobody really liked me very much. But we didn’t have a pediatrician. We had a doctor. Dr. Collins, drove a second hand car and made house calls. ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/109 "2013-03-24T23:00:11Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Mine asks if my husband beats me. (The question is “do you feel safe in your home”.) > > Do men get asked that, or is it just women? My husband and I both see doctors at a campus of the Cleveland Clinic. We are both asked this question at every appointment. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/110 "2013-03-25T01:56:05Z")
I was asked whether my husband beats me when I checked into the hospital to have a baby. I can’t remember my personal doctor ever asking. No one asked with the second baby, and for that one, I _was_ sporting bruises that looked like someone had taken an axe handle to the baby bump. (I was giving myself heparin shots, and they caused massive bruising in my stomach area. But I got the same bruises when the nurses took over giving me the shots when I was hospitalized for a couple of months for that pregnancy.) ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/111 "2013-03-25T03:59:12Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Well, you being you, they probably aren’t surprised somebody is beating you. Maybe they want to help next time. > I keed! But you’ve been here long enough to know you shouldn’t leave an obvious straight line like that hanging. 😃 Snerk. Me being me, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time they don’t ask me who I have been beating up. 😃 OTOH, I am really glad I don’t have kids for yet another reason. If every time I went to the doctor with a kid, they would ask me about basic moron things like bike helmets and gun safety, I’d go nuts! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/112 "2013-03-25T04:05:58Z")
I think I speak for many here when I say how pleased we are such a grim prospect has been avoided. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/113 "2013-03-25T04:08:09Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I think I speak for many here when I say how pleased we are such a grim prospect has been avoided. That I’m not beating people up routinely? ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/114 "2013-03-27T02:17:29Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=686338](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=686338) Just a link to the other Pit Thread that is related to this one… It’s a shame, but this is why they take the 60 seconds to ask the question and remind people the gun safety question, because every one of these mishaps that can be prevented is worth plenty of other complaining parents. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/115 "2013-03-27T12:54:06Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > Is this true, or is an organization “anti-gun” just because the NRA says so? Meaning, do you have any evidence of the American Academy of Pediatrics being anti-gun? > [@Hamlet](#): > > Can I use “Debaser’s understanding” as a cite now? If I’m pushed for a cite on the number of civilians killed in drone attacks, can I just say “Well, it’s Debaser’s understanding that it is 2,324?” Or if I pull some conclusion out of my ass, can I just say “well, it’s Debaser’s understanding”? Why the hostility? All you had to do is ask. You could even ask nicely. **Damuri Ajashi** and others already answered with a good explanation and included cites so consider yourselves informed. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/116 "2013-03-27T12:58:53Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I like that. > > You can also point out the statistics for dog bite by the family pet, cat scratch fever, and whatever the heck it is you get from pet birds. Swimming pool deaths, kitchen burns and drowning in the bath tub. > > Homes are _dangerous_! Absolutely true. Which is why our pediatrician knows what and how many pets we have, for instance, and discussed bathing safety as regards our newborn son at his first post-hospital visit. What’s the big deal here? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/117 "2013-03-27T13:06:30Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > Absolutely true. Which is why our pediatrician knows what and how many pets we have, for instance, and discussed bathing safety as regards our newborn son at his first post-hospital visit. > > What’s the big deal here? The problem is that pets and bathtubs are not crucial elements of anyone’s sense of self. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/118 "2013-03-27T13:09:47Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > The problem is that pets and bathtubs are not crucial elements of anyone’s sense of self. Astute. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/119 "2013-03-27T13:25:55Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > The problem is that pets and bathtubs are not crucial elements of anyone’s sense of self. We should keep an eye on them bathtubs. They can grow up into _Killer Pools!_ ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578/120 "2013-03-27T13:28:35Z")
Guns might be more dangerous in a household where one of the adults is eager to fly off the handle at small provocations… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-anti-gun-pediatricians/653578.md?page=7)