BAD NEWS: Second Amendment Advocates Are Dealt Another Blow By Overreaching Government…

BAD NEWS:  Second Amendment Advocates Are Dealt Another Blow By Overreaching Government…

On February 16, 2017, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals published a ruling that chips away at the privacy of Americans. They ruled, after this particular case had been through several other lower courts in the last few years, that indeed, doctors can ask their patients whether they own firearms, saying mainly, two things to support their decision. One, they state that a doctor asking a patient about firearm ownership does not constitute infringement of that patient’s 2nd Amendment right to own them, since the doctor has no legal authority to take them away, and two, that if it were legally prohibited for doctors to ask about firearms, that it would constitute an infringement on the doctor’s First Amendment right to free speech. See a section from the 11th Circuit’s decision below:

DR. BERND WOLLSCHLAEGER versus
GOVERNOR, STATE OF FLORIDA et al.

The first problem is that there was no evidence whatsoever before the Florida Legislature that any doctors or medical professionals have taken away patients’ firearms or otherwise infringed on patients’ Second Amendment rights.

This evidentiary void is not surprising because doctors and medical professionals, as private actors, do not have any authority (legal or otherwise) to restrict the ownership or possession of firearms by patients (or by anyone else for that matter).

The Second Amendment right to own and possess firearms does not preclude questions about, commentary on, or criticism for the exercise of that right. So, as the district court aptly noted, see Wollschlaeger I, 880 F. Supp. 2d at 1264, there is no actual conflict between the First Amendment rights of doctors and medical professionals and the Second Amendment rights of patients that justifies FOPA’s speaker-focused and content-based restrictions on speech.”

This case was heard by and ruled on by “ED CARNES (pictured above), Chief Circuit Judge, and TJOFLAT, HULL, MARCUS, WILSON, WILLIAM PRYOR, MARTIN, JORDAN, ROSENBAUM, JULIE CARNES, and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges. JORDAN, Circuit Judge.”

The Left always thinks your life is their business, always in the name of keeping us “safe.” These judges appear to believe that as well. The issue before the court should not have been a patient’s right to bear arms or a doctor’s right to speak freely and ask about those arms. The real issue should have been this; a patient’s right to PRIVACY. Whether or not a patient owns firearms is NONE OF HIS DOCTOR’S BUSINESS and has no legitimate connection to the doctor’s provision of healthcare.

One could conceive of a situation whereby whenever a doctor asks his or her patient about owning firearms, that the answers received could be recorded in a database of some kind. And that kind of database detailing which patients own guns, or how many and what kind, is bad news for Americans. At no time is it appropriate for that information to be available to the government, or private citizens and political or news organizations.

An American’s right to bear arms is sacrosanct and quite frankly outside of the “need to know” of our physicians. Hey doc, mind your own business. You don’t ask if I have a gun and I won’t ask if you do. Because if, like these 11th Circuit judges said, you have the First Amendment right to ask, then we, the patient, also have the First Amendment right to either not answer your impudent question or ask you if YOU own any firearms. How do you like them apples?

Sonja Bochow

I live in Newark, DE, am married, and the mother of four children; Liam, Brenna, Keira and Erin. I am also a full time Bible teacher and have a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from West Chester University.

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