Florida Alert: Judge Calls Law to Protect Gun Owners Rights a "Legislative Illusion"

DATE:   July 5, 2012

TO:      USF & NRA Members and Friends

FROM:  Marion P. Hammer                                                                                                                                             USF Executive Director                                                                                                                                     NRA Past President

Be very careful, ANYTHING you say or tell your doctor in confidence may not be confidential at all anymore, if he/she enters it or has entered it into your medical records.  Particularly, whether you have guns in the home and where they are stored.

The Florida law, to stop doctors from interrogating children and their parents about gun ownership and guns in the home, and entering the information into medical records, is especially important now given the current state of healthcare in our country.  And on June 29, in an order that reads like it was written by the Brady Campaign and the anti-gun lawyers of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Miami Judge Marcia Cooke struck down the so-called "Docs & Glocks" law, which would have protected Florida's gun owner privacy rights.

Judge Cooke's order ridiculed the law saying supporters of the law couldn't provide anything but "anecdotal information" to prove the law was needed to protect patients from discrimination.  She said, the state's arguments in favor of the law rest on a "legislative illusion."

Apparently, Judge Cooke doesn't care that what she calls "anecdotal information" is about real people and real invasions of privacy.

Now, if you own guns or have guns in your home, a doctor can refuse to treat you or your children.

Unless Governor Scott appeals this opinion, there will be nothing to stop doctors from interrogating gun owners and entering gun ownership information into their computerized medical records.  To ask Governor Scott to appeal this ORDER, please e-mail him here.

As we brace for a federal government takeover of the health care system, fears are escalating that government will have access to medical records that can become the lists of gun owners.

If you doubt the government can access your medical records, ask yourself if you really believed the federal government could force you to buy health.

These concerns are NOTABLY absent from any of the media coverage on Judge Cooke's ruling. They are not even asking the NRA representatives for comments.

Read the clips for yourself:

WND:  OWN A GUN? DOCTORS CAN REFUSE TO TREAT YOU by Drew Zahn

6 NBC Miami:  Florida's 'Docs vs. Glocks' Law Shot Down

Financial News & Daily Record: Judge bars enforcement of law restricting doctors from gun question by Michael Peltier, The News Service of Florida

Miami NewsTimes Blogs:  Rick Scott's "Docs vs. Glocks" Law Struck Down by Kyle Munzenrieder

The Palm Beach Post:  Judge rejects ban on pediatricians asking patients about gun ownership by Dara Kam