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Doctors are 3 times as deadly as guns. So why is the AMA targeting firearms?
Culture/Society Editorial
Source: NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
Author: Steve Dasbach
Posted on 07/04/2001 05:25:50 PDT by winner45
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web:
http://www.LP.org===============================
For release: July 1, 2001
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For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail:
pressreleases@hq.LP.org===============================
Doctors are 3 times as deadly as guns.
So why is the AMA targeting firearms?
WASHINGTON, DC -- Doctors kill three times as many people every
year as guns do -- which is why the new head of the American Medical
Association should stop crusading against guns and target incompetent
physicians instead, say Libertarians.
"Message to the AMA: Doctor control would save far more lives
than gun control," said Steve Dasbach, national director of the
Libertarian Party.
"Instead of adopting a political agenda and working to
eliminate the Second Amendment, doctors should adopt a medical agenda
and work to eliminate deadly, derelict doctors."
Last week, Dr. Richard Corlin sparked a huge controversy by
adopting "gun safety" as his platform when he was inaugurated as
president of the American Medical Association.
Citing "an epidemic of handgun violence," Corlin demanded an
increased firearms research budget for the federal Centers for Disease
Control, and more studies of trigger locks and ways to reduce
accidental shootings.
But Corlin failed to mention that, according to studies,
doctors kill three times as many Americans each year as guns do, said
Dasbach.
"According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, 98,000
Americans are killed every year by medical errors," he noted. "By
contrast, 30,708 gun-related deaths occurred in 1998 -- meaning
incompetent doctors are more than three times as deadly as guns."
The Institute's 1999 report called the medical error rate
"stunningly high" and cited "horrific cases" of malpractice, such as a
man who had the wrong leg amputated by a sloppy surgeon.
"If Corlin is concerned about saving lives, why isn't he
campaigning to keep scalpels out of the hands of slipshod surgeons?"
asked Dasbach. "Or demanding background checks for doctors, federal
lawsuits against the medical industry, or a 'cooling off' period to
keep doctors who have just injured a patient out of the operating room
for a few days?"
Corlin's campaign against guns also violates the Hippocratic
Oath of "First Do No Harm," Dasbach pointed out.
"Americans use guns to defend themselves 2.4 million times a
year, according to the Gun Owners Foundation," he said. "So Corlin's
anti-gun agenda could harm -- or even kill -- 2.4 million innocent
Americans every year. That's medical malpractice on a grand scale."
Corlin ought to consider how he would react if the tables were
turned, said Dasbach.
"Imagine the response from doctors if the president of the
National Rifle Association started attacking an 'epidemic of operating
room violence' -- and began campaigning for more medical malpractice
lawsuits," he said. "Yet that's exactly what the AMA has been doing for
years. These physicians have been targeting guns instead of something
they actually have control over: Their incompetent colleagues who are
killing 98,000 of their own patients every year."
The fact is, gun violence isn't a medical issue, it's a
criminal issue, said Dasbach.
"People who use a gun to commit a crime should be arrested and
prosecuted -- which is the job of the police, not doctors," he said.
"Honest, peaceful gun owners should be left alone by misguided doctors
masquerading as politicians.
"In other words, doctors, heal thyselves -- instead of wasting
your time attacking an industry that saves millions of lives every
year."
