Doctors as gun snitches
Edgar Suter
"It can't happen here," you say? Well, read what is happening in
Australia.
Edgar A. Suter MD
National Chair
Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research Inc. (DIPR)
5201 Norris Canyon Road #220
San Ramon CA 94583-5405 USA
voice 510-277-0333
FAX 510-277-1568
CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME and NEEDED
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Doctors enlisted in gun plan
By BERNARD LAGAN
and MICHAEL
MILLETT
The Sydney
Morning Herald
May 8, 1996
Page 1
Doctors and psychiatrists will be forced to tell police the names of
patients whom they consider unfit to posses guns under proposals drawn
up by the NSW Government for Friday's Canberra summit on gun control.
The Minister for Police, Mr Whelan, who unveiled the plan yesterday.
said the names would not be publicly disclosed and doctors and
psychiatrists who passed names of patients to police would be
indemnified against legal action.
Under the NSU' proposal the
names of patients "not well enough, not mentally stable enough to have
a weapon," would have to be reported to the police.
He acknowledged that there would be medical privacy and civil
libertarian objections but said it was an area "that had to be faced
up to".
"If a medical practitioner is of the view that a patient should not
have a gun, then there should be a duty on the medical practitioner or
psychiatrist to report that fact to the police," said Mr Whelan.
Last night, the secretary of the Royal College of Australian and New
Zealand Psychiatrists, Dr Michael Epstein, said psychiatrists
were already required by their code of ethics to accept the obligation
occasionally to pass the names of patients to authorities
"So psychiatrists already have an obligation to the community if they
believe the person would pose a significant risk to themselves or
others," said Dr Epstein.
He understood the intention of the Government's proposal to require
mandatory reporting but added: "Clearly, what we are talking about is
competing ethical positions."
Mr Whelan said the Government's proposal was an extension of the
obligation the medical profession now had to report child abuse victim
to authorities.
The Federal Government is also pushing for much tougher eligibility
requirements for gun owners in its package of reform measures to be
presented to Australian Police Ministers.
Its proposals include a new
licensing system which would allow licences [sic] to be rejected or
cancelled for reasons such as "mental or physical fitness .
The Government will recommend that a Commonwealth/State working party,
which would include members of the medical profession, be set up to
propose a system for determining mental and physical fitness.
The new screening system would also allow police to reject applicants
with a criminal background, or those subject to an apprehended
violence order or domestic violence order within the last five years.
Licences could also be
refused on general grounds, for example if the applicant or owner was
deemed to be "not of good character", did not possess a genuine reason
for owning a gun or even if they did not notify of a change of
address.
Personal protection would no longer be regarded as a genuine reason
for owning, possession or using a firearm.
As flagged by the Prime Minister, the Commonwealth package includes a
demand for a total prohibition on automatic and semi automatic
weapons, with exemptions only for the military, police and
professional shooters licensed for a specific Task.
Pump action shotguns with maximum of seven round would be allowed.
The Commonwealth wants six month amnesty during which owners will be
compensated for handing back outlawed weapon with mandatory prison
sentence: to apply after that period for people found in possession of
military style weapons like those used at Port Arthur.
To obtain a gun licence [sic] applicants must be over 18. of fine and
proper character, and be able to satisfy a identity point test similar
to that now applying for bank accounts.