Monday, June 18, 2018

The American Medical Association Hides its Own Failures by Pushing Gun Control


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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