Opinion: Doctors need to discuss firearm safety and gun violence with their patients
Physicians need to view firearm-related violence as the public health epidemic it is and take steps to prevent it by talking about guns with their patients.
As a resident in a training program for primary care physicians, I ask my patients all sorts of highly personal questions aimed at understanding what’s needed to keep them healthy and prevent future disease. I ask how often a patient moves her bowels, whether he has had unprotected sex or used illicit drugs, and more. I never asked my patients if they keep a gun in the home — until the Las Vegas mass shooting prompted me to start.
