Medical Economic’s Biased Article Reeks of Hoplophobia

Biased Medical Economics Article
Biased Medical Economics Article
Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership
Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership

USA –  -(Ammoland.com)- The online physician magazine Medical Economics deals with practice management and technology subjects of concern to doctors.

Last week it provoked its readers with an emotional rant against the American civil right of gun ownership, written by Los Angeles doctor Monya De. 

De demonstrates no qualifications on the subject other than ignorant contempt for gun owners and a gift for self-promotion.  She has a checkered past as an actual doctor, having failed to complete her residency training program for the documented reason of incompetence.

Worse, after flunking out of her residency, De then sued her residency program, lost, appealed, and lost again. The appellate court tossed her appeal, granting a summary judgment against her with legal costs awarded to the people she sued.  This is a highly unusual legal step taken by the appeals court, generally reserved for lawsuits the court deems without merit.

It was this person, then—a doctor who failed her specialty training because of incompetence and isn’t even board certified—who Medical Economics editors chose to write an article about gun ownership.

We’ve often written about the anti-gun civil rights bias of medical journals. The editors’ first choice of a fuming hoplophobe to write about guns only confirms that bias is alive at Medical Economics. At our urging the editors agreed to post a rebuttal from Dr. Wheeler.

With no explanation, the editors also quietly changed the title of De’s original article from “Obtaining a gun should be as difficult as becoming a doctor” to “Obtaining an assault rifle should be as difficult as becoming a doctor.”

Incredibly, they did this after Dr. Wheeler had already written his rebuttal to the original title.  This appeared to be a blatant effort to soften De’s original stance, possibly made by the editor after he saw the uniformly scathing comments of outraged readers.

It was only after Dr. Wheeler called the editor on his mysterious title change that he agreed to place an editor’s note (see the second paragraph of my article below) disclosing the change (but not explaining it).

Dr. Wheeler’s Medical Economics article follows.

Reading “Obtaining an assault rifle should be as difficult as becoming a doctor” (Monya De, MD MPH, August 13, 2016) shocked me, as it should shock every American.  The title might as well have read “African-Americans should have to pass a literacy test to vote” or “Christians should be put in prison.” All three of these emotion-laden issues were settled in American law years ago.  Yet there remains in our profession a vast illiteracy regarding the uniquely American right to keep and bear arms.

[Editor’s note: Originally, De’s blog post was titled “Obtaining a gun should be as difficult as becoming a doctor.” Wheeler wrote this reply to the original title.]   Read the rest here…

 

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.

Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation. www.drgo.us

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First let me add that Dr Timothy Wheeler serves a big thanks for his comments. As mentioned in the comments I too admire the amount of training required to become a doctor. I can thank a doctor for saving my life when I needed one the most. I am very happy that doctor was available to do his magic. Second I would like to say I have taught gun safety and carried a weapon since the mid 1950’s. I have been on rifle and pistol teams, been a range master and an official at varying competitions, carried and fired various… Read more »

Bart Cook

Thank you Dr. Wheeler. well said!

Brandon

LOL…..and what i love best is that Dr’s kill more people each year than guns!!

shep

more people have died under the care of a ‘doctor’ than all gun deaths.

ruraltexas

More people die from incompetent doctors then from gunfire.

Gene Ralno

Wholesale condemnation of doctors eventually will be pushed by the propagandists now in charge of the U.S. That will be a colossal mistake because every doctor I know owns firearms and most have them in their offices and cars as well as at home. Pushing doctors will be irresistible for the charlatan king because he’ll need a hot button gimmick to distract his morons from the catastrophe now overtaking ObamaCare.

revjen45

I have a 3-year degree in Professional Gunsmithing. Would that qualify to own a gun?

Glen

Being the curious person that I am, I looked up the definition of holpophobia. Wikipedia says this: Hoplophobia is a political neologism coined by retired American military officer Jeff Cooper as a pejorative to describe an “irrational aversion to weapons.” It is also used to describe the “fear of firearms” or the “fear of armed citizens.” Hoplophobia is a political term and not a recognized medical phobia. Rather pejorative, right? Well, what happens if we change the “lp” to an “m”? We get this Wikipedia ARTICLE about homophobia that starts like this: Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and… Read more »

Eric_CA

Thank you for posting your perspective.

Dave from San Antonio

I work with interns every day and have worked with them for over 25 years. “IF” obtaining a gun should be as hard as becoming a doctor, then, obtaining a gun will be much easier than it is now. The “standards” for becoming an M.D., from what I’ve seen…have loosened up quite a bit.

Curtiss

I will give credit where credit is due, becoming a doctor is quite a process. Glad to hear there are a few that don’t make it, sometimes I wonder! But obtaining a gun with 4-6 years of college, internship, etc… Really!! I would give in to a mandatory course with 4-1 hour shooting sessions with a trained instructor. A few hours of classroom training, and another few hours for concealed carry licenses. Training to include legal training in the laws of the persons state. Having a gun is serious business, training and knowledge are critical. Join U.S. Lawshield (or equivalent)… Read more »

Richard L Jones

Curtis, would being a Veteran of 1961 thru 1964 Qualify ?

Ty

If I made laws, I would definitely say that anyone who served for our country has more than the experience required to carry a firearm wherever they want for the rest of their lives.

Thank you for your service.