California Congressman Ami Bera, MD—A Doctor Against Public Health?

Ami Bera MD

Ami Bera MD (from politico.com)

DRGO’s position regarding doctors expounding on guns as a public health problem is simple—they shouldn’t.

Nowhere in medical school, residency, or continuing medical education are the subjects of firearm mechanics, safety, or tactics discussed. Obviously this doesn’t stop some doctors from believing they are expert enough on the subject to counsel their patients about firearms in their homes. Such “counseling” generally consists of the doctor parroting the anti-gun rights propaganda of their medical organizations.

But if doctors were to take a position on firearms they should follow the best scientific research we have, which pretty much confirms gun ownership by responsible people to be a social benefit in terms of lives saved and injuries prevented in lawful self-defense. Many truths in medicine are often counter-intuitive, and the fact that public gun ownership is beneficial to public health is one of them.

Ami Bera, MD is a physician re-elected last year by the thinnest of margins to the House of Representatives by the voters of California’s 7th congressional district. This district is by no means a typical coastal blue enclave, but Bera has a voting record on firearm issues that could be the envy of a San Francisco congress member.

quote4The National Rifle Association gave Bera an “F” grade for 2014, a damning designation as a “true enemy of gun owners’ rights. A consistent anti-gun candidate who always opposes gun owners’ rights and/or actively leads anti-gun legislative efforts, or sponsors anti-gun legislation.” Gun Owners of America rates him at a dismal 7% (per votesmart.org), their highest rating being 100%.

Why is Bera so hostile to the basic human right of owning a firearm?

Cultural factors may come into play; it is the exception for a person whose upbringing is influenced by a foreign culture (Bera’s parents immigrated to America in 1958) to consider gun ownership in a positive light. Also, Bera is a physician with an academic background, which puts him in a group known for its hostility to the civil right of firearm ownership.

Both of these factors might have influenced an official action he took as co-chair of the race-based Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus—he lobbied for the Senate confirmation of the fervent gun prohibitionist Vivek Murthy, MD as Surgeon General. The caucus claims “…to work with other Members and Caucuses to protect and advance the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans.

But aggressively supporting a Surgeon General who is an avowed gun banner proves that Bera does just the opposite.

We can only hope Rep. Bera will learn more about the natural right of self-defense and its vital importance in American history and politics. And while he’s at it, he could read some of the criminology research on firearms instead of the advocacy literature written by some of his gun-hating fellow MDs.

A congress member’s position on a fundamental civil right should not be based on racial preferences or on the public health community’s hoplophobia.

 

Dr. Tim Wheeler

—Timothy Wheeler, MD is director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation.

All DRGO articles by Timothy Wheeler, MD.