Would YOUR doctor certify YOU as competent to Concealed Carry?

Many doctors concerned about physician involvement in concealed-weapon permit process | Science Codex:

 A new survey of North Carolina doctors finds that many are concerned about the increasing number of requests they are receiving to assess their patients' competency to carry concealed weapons. In particular, a majority of physicians who responded to the survey said they were worried about the potential ethical consequences in the doctor-patient relationship if they participated in the concealed-weapon permit process.

This would be a FIRST EXPERIENCE for most of us.

As American attitudes are leaning more strongly toward insisting that people who are .. I hate to use the term, but ...ALLOWED to carry weapons, they increasingly rely on their trusted doctor to say: "Hey, Joe's a Good Man!"

Unfortunately, your doctor might be as reluctant to say you won't go kill anybody as you might be to say the same about your doctor.

Is your doctor professionally competent?
Are you mentally competent?

 "This is not a small problem," said Dr. Adam Goldstein, corresponding author of the study and a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. "More than 20 percent of the physicians we surveyed have been asked to sign competency permits for concealed weapons, and a majority of them do not feel they can adequately assess the physical or mental competence of their patients to safely have a concealed weapons permit."

 Who is on the stick here?

The answer is ... both of you are very much on the stick today, and the reason is that Americans are looking at Mental Competence as a measure of whether any single person should be 'granted' the right to carry a weapon.

Oh sure, the Second Amendment says it right there: "... Shall Not Be Infringed ..."!

But what does that mean?

Most of us know Crazy Willy; you know, the guy with the long hair and sloppy shoes with no socks, who wanders through the neighborhood all day muttering to himself as he watches his toes?  (Okay, maybe you don't have a Crazy Willy in you life, but I do and -whew- he isn't me.)

Felons give up their Constitutional Right to carry a firearm.  Okay, they've proven themselves congenitally disposed to misuse their rights.

Crazy Willy?  He can count his toes and I don't care, but I also don't care to see him packing a .45.  I do NOT trust Crazy Willy.  And I'm pretty sure his Psychotherapist (who sees Crazy Willy 3 times a week) wouldn't want to 'certify' his patient, either.

But .. why not?  What has he got to lose?

Besides his wife, his life, and his license to practice .. if he's wrong.

Okay, so sometimes it's a "No-Brainer"; some people obviously shouldn't be trusted with a firearm.

What if your state requires certification by a "Medical Practitioner" that YOU are competent to own (and perhaps carry) a firearm?  Do you trust your doctor that far?

 The study, published as a research letter in the June 29, 2014 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is believed to be the first that examines physicians' attitudes, beliefs and behaviors regarding their emerging role in the assessment of physical and mental competency and the licensing of concealed weapons.

 More important; does HE trust YOU that far?



We've gone a 'fur piece' in trying to find a reasonable balance between "freedom" and "responsibility".  Most of us who use firearms feel much like the new groom, who tells his friends "It's a lot about lovin' and forgivin', and so far I've been doin' all the forgivin'."

How far must Gun-Rights advocates go to reassure their fellow citizens that they're not Crazy Willy?

And how much can we rely ... if it comes to that ... on our physicians to confirm that we're not Crazy Willy?

If it ever comes down to that, one suspects that your doctor is not your friend; he will be reluctant to aver that you will Never Go Postal.

Given that there have been so many shootings, so many "revealed" Crazy Willys in the past few years, you might be forgiven if you don't truly trust your physician to 'certify' you in the way you might prefer, if the Guvment requires him to do so?

Hell, I wouldn't 'certify' my own doctor;  I trust him to say if I have Cancer, but I which of the two of us is the most sane.

It's something to think about, while the Gun Control argument wobbles back and forth, searching for a middle ground.

That "middle ground" just might be your own mental state ... as defined by a confused and defensive Doctor who has NO experience in mental-health issues.