***ALERT*** Brady Campaign's Law Firm Also Representing Pediatricians

DATE:       June 3, 2011
TO:            USF & NRA Members and Friends
FROM:      Marion P. Hammer
                  USF Executive Director 
                  NRA Past President

There's an old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together" and that certainly confirms that the attack on gun rights by pediatricians and doctors in Florida is blatant gun control politics.

We thought you should know what the lawsuit threat from pediatricians is really about.....

Ropes & Gray, the law firm that has represented the "Brady Campaign," the nation's largest anti-gun/gun ban organization in lawsuits, is also representing pediatricians and threatening a lawsuit to usurp the privacy rights and gun rights of patients in Florida. Click here to see the law firm connection.

The Brady Campaign's Washington-based law firm of Ropes & Gray is now representing the Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Physicians.  Click here to see read the Palm Beach Post article about the pending lawsuit.

Last week, in a brazen attempt to intimidate and coerce Governor Scott into vetoing HB 155 -- Privacy of Firearm Owners, lawyers from that firm representing those physicians groups, sent a threatening letter to Governor Scott.

The letter signed by the lawyers on behalf of the pediatricians said "...we intend to file a lawsuit against you and other state officials in the event that this legislation becomes law."   Click here to see the threatening letter to the Governor printed in the Orlando Sentinel. 

GOVERNOR SCOTT SIGNED THE HB 155 on June 2!

House Bill 155 will keep politics out of examination rooms.

BACKGROUND ON HB 155

Banning guns and removing guns from private homes has been the agenda of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).   For years, their website made it clear that their agenda was banning guns. 

On 1/26/2011, we downloaded the following from their website:

" WHERE WE STAND: GUN SAFETY

The most effective way to prevent firearm-related injury to children is to keep guns out of homes and communities.  The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports gun-control legislation.  We believe that handguns, deadly air guns, and assault weapons should be banned.

Until handguns are banned, we recommend that handguns and handgun ammunition be regulated, that restrictions be placed on handgun ownership, and that the number of privately owned handguns be reduced.  Firearms should be removed from the environments where children live and play, but if they are not, they must be stored locked and unloaded.  Loaded firearms and unloaded firearms and ammunition represent a serious danger to children."

And this excerpt for advice to parents:

“ADVICE TO PARENTS

The best way to keep your children safe from injury or death from guns is to NEVER have a gun in the home.
  *  Do not purchase a gun, especially a handgun.
  *  Remove all guns present in the home.”

Following our exposure of their gun ban agenda, AAP mysteriously changed the text of their position on their website to hide their agenda -- but not before legislators and gun rights supporters saw the truth.

The bill is designed to make doctors "practice medicine" NOT "practice gun ban politics" in their examination rooms.  As a parent or a patient you have a right to protect your privacy about gun ownership.  How many guns you own and where they are stored is your personal private information.

Doctors need to treat illness, not guns.  Pediatricians and other physicians, in growing numbers, have been prying into our personal lives, invading our privacy and straying from issues relating to disease and medicine by questioning children or their parents about gun ownership.

We take our children to physicians for medical care, not moral judgment, political harassment, and privacy intrusions - and that is what HB 155 prohibits.

This bill is to help families who have been complaining about the growing political agenda being carried out in examination rooms by doctors and medical staffs - and the arrogant berating if a patient refuses to answer questions that violate privacy rights and offend common decency.

Horrified parents have described nurses entering the answers to gun questions into laptop computers to become a part of medical records. They have become concerned about whether those records can be used by the government or by insurance companies to deny health care coverage because a family exercises a civil right in owning firearms.

As parents, we are responsible for our children's safety. We don't need doctors pushing their anti-gun politics on us or our kids. We need them to spend their time practicing medicine and not prying into our personal lives on issues that have nothing to do with disease, its cure, or its eradication.

Don't be fooled.

This is not about the First Amendment, or gun safety or medical care.

IT IS PURE, RAW, GUN BAN POLITICS.

Recognize it.  Don't forget it. Help fight it!