The American Medical Association is
jumping on board the gun
control band wagon by organizing a massive push to lobby law makers
to enact stricter gun laws. Among some of these proposals are a ban on so
called assault weapons, high capacity magazines, licensing and registration of
all firearms, and laws which prohibit anyone under the age of twenty-one from
purchasing any type of weapon.
Currently, people under twenty-one are already prohibited from owning
handguns. These new proposals, mirroring Florida’s new gun control measures,
would make purchasing any type of rifle or shot gun illegal by anyone under the
age of twenty-one. Imagine the hypocrisy of such laws, eighteen-year old’s
fight for our freedom only to be denied the freedoms they believe they are
fighting for. The second amendment was written to guarantee everyone’s inalienable
right to self-defense. The American Medical Association has no authority to
offer policy initiatives on this subject.
The American Medical Association is
attempting to present gun ownership as a public health crisis.
This began under President Obama’s Surgeon General Vivek
Murthy. Murthy is responsible for organizing a group called Doctors
for Obama and helped lobby congress for the passage of Obamacare. This group
has already pressed for these gun control laws under the misguided notion that
banning guns is a part of medicine and would result in a healthier America.
While labeling gun ownership as a
public health crisis may seem far fetched to some, the fact is that conservatism
have been labeled as a potential mental illness for quite some time. In the article Political
Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, the authors argue that a
conservative’s unwillingness to change is a sign of a mental disorder. They
also argue that the right generally shows a favorable attitude towards
inequality while the left pushes for total equality, meaning that conservatives
are intolerant bigots. This, according to the authors, is because the right
believes in a hierarchal structure for society. This of course, is non-sense.
The right believes in equality of opportunity, not forced out comes. In any
case, the label of mental illness is being associated with political
conservatism. Soon, those showing an unwillingness to accept the idea that gun
ownership is creating a public health crisis could be considered mentally ill
as well.
“The populace must be brought into the belief that every individual
within it who rebels in any way, shape, or form against efforts and activities
to enslave the whole, must be considered to be a deranged person whose
eccentricities are neurotic or insane and who must have at once the treatment
of a psychopolitician.” (Beria, Manual on
Psychopolitics)
The AMA may be seeking to treat gun
ownership as a public health crisis; however, in doing so they appear to be
hiding some of their own public health problems. For instance, a report
released in 2016 by John Hopkins Medicine reveals that medical errors and
malpractice are now the third leading cause of death in America. According to
John Hopkins safety experts, more than 250,000 people per year die of medical
errors. This far surpasses the three hundred and seventy-six people murdered by
rifles in 2016. It is amazing because the AMA cites the devastating human toll
of so called gun violence without mentioning a word about the numbers killed by
their own errors.
Another point the AMA is failing to
mention is the number of people killed annually using prescription drugs,
namely anti-psychotics. Over fifteen thousand people died because of
psychiatric drug use in 2014, this is more than the number of deaths due to
heroin addiction. Yet, the AMA is directly involved in marketing
these drugs through advertising campaigns designed to make people
think the drugs are designed just for their specific symptoms. These ads play
daily on television, depicting a normal everyday family suffering the effects
of some illness wondering what they can do about it. The chosen drug is
marketed directly to individuals who may feel they are experiencing these
symptoms. Unfortunately, the list of potential (side) effects, in many cases
include suicidal and homicidal behavior. It is a well-established fact that
many of the mass shootings recently witnessed in America were committed by
people taking these types of medications. The AMA then, appears to be pushing
gun control to divert attention away from the fact that they are profiting from
one of the probable causes of gun violence.
The AMA also employs a subtler
tactic of using standardized billing codes. As a student in social work this
author was taught this as a common method of collecting payment from Medicare. Service
providers, whether they be physicians, or mental health counselors are forced
to give a diagnosis and prescribe a drug and assign it a billing code to receive
payment. The Diagnostic
Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders, for example, is nothing but a list
of billing codes for hundreds of so called mental disorders for which people
are prescribed drugs. The AMA established this method to establish
communications between providers and insurance companies. Now, it has just
become a source of income for the pharmaceutical industry whose profits are in the billions.
The AMA can push gun control all
they want. It is apparent that they are doing so to hide the atrocities
committed by their own greed. There are over two million defensive gun uses
annually in the United States, a finding incidentally, which
was hidden from public view by the Centers for Disease Control. By jumping aboard
the gun control wagon, the AMA is only re-affirming the lefts commitment to
leave good people helpless while empowering those who have the inclination to
prey on others. The idea of gun ownership being a public health crisis without
addressing the root causes of violent behavior does absolutely nothing to keep
people safe. Britain found out the hard way. First they surrendered their guns,
now the government is demanding
people surrender their knives.
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