GOT GUNS?

Each time I see my family doctor, I am handed a short form with a dozen questions on it (meds now being taken, current complaint, most-recent visit, etc.). Buried in the list is this one: “Are there guns in your home?”

My doc is a leftist. Many docs are. And this question is a manifestation of the campaign to characterize (“demonize” might be a better word), gun possession as a public health problem.

I am not a fan of the public health rationale as a justification for national policy. It has an ugly history, and tyrants of all sorts have used “public health” as an excuse for their behavior. The Soviets put dissidents away in mental hospitals (often in Siberia) because their wrong-headed ideas about freedom might “infect” others. And the Nazis explained their genocidal murder campaigns as public health measures---according to them, the Jews, Gypsies and other groups were polluting the pure Aryan blood of the “master race,” so these inferiors had to be exterminated.

Nevertheless, while it pays to be suspicious of the rationale, public health is a legitimate concern of government. Quarantines, border enforcement and vaccination programs can be justified in a free society. I WANT the U.S. Government to prevent ebola from gaining a foothold in America, for example, even if it means that my freedom would be limited in certain miniscule respects.

The problem with the “guns-are-a-public-health-issue” campaign is that it undercuts the serious business involved in actual, potentially deadly, public health concerns. Painting gun possession as a public health problem trivializes the meaning of “public health,” and leads to unintended consequences. One of these consequences is that the claim of “public health” is now often viewed as just another bit of political rhetoric. When gun possession and distracted driving and seat-belt usage become public health issues, the term loses its meaning.

Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children are increasingly common in America and the resulting decline in herd immunity for such things as whooping cough poses a deadly danger to all of us. This is a direct result of political campaigns claiming that whatever leftists disapprove of is a “public health issue.”

Copyright2014MichaelKubacki