Boston, New Bill Proposal Would Empower Doctors to Treat Gun Ownership Like A Disease

[Charlie T Waite]

December 4, 2019

Have you been screened positive for the presence of firearms in the home?

Under legislation filed by State Representative Jon Santiago of Boston, the Department of Public Health will create a program for “firearm screening and counseling”. For many years the anti-civil rights crowd has tried to make gun violence a public health crisis. Now it appears that they want to treat simple gun ownership as a disease!

The bill itself is rather vague as it does not state what kind of patients would be “screened”. Would it be every patient seen, no matter the reason? The language used in the bill is very concerning and degrading. Mandating that people are screened for gun ownership as if we have a communicable disease is outrageous. The bill also mandates that we receive some sort of counseling if we are “screened positive” for firearms. The bill does use the term “safety counseling”, but why the word counseling? When GOAL provides firearms safety education, we don’t refer to it as counseling.

Simply put, not only the bill, but the terminology used shows the disdain for simply exercising our civil rights in the Commonwealth.

H.2005 An Act to Prevent Gun Violence

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 236 the following section:-
Section 237. The director shall establish a program for firearm screening and counseling. Such program shall systematically screen all patients for the presence of firearms in the home. The director shall, after consultation with recognized professional medical groups and such other sources as the director deems appropriate, promulgate regulations establishing (1) the means by which and the intervals at which patients shall be screened for the presence of firearms in the home and (2) guidelines for safety counseling for individuals that screen positive for the presence of firearms in the home.
SECTION 2. This section shall take effect 6 months after its passage.