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Old 2nd January 2013, 11:47 AM   #37
383LQ4SS
Critical Thinker
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 360
Originally Posted by Sabretooth View Post
Doctors would be protected from liability.
By magic? Its that simple? Inevitably if you try to provide immunity in the language of whatever law you pass it is not likely to cover negligence on the doctors part. So there is nearly always an avenue for legal action in a case like this. Clearly if the doctor gave a clean bill of health to a mass murderer it would not be out of the realm of possibility for someone to bring a suit claiming negligence. It does not even matter if the suit is won. The cost of legal defense is enough to likely make doctors gun shy (no pun intended) regarding issuing such statements.

And if you do provide enough language in the law so that all doctors get 100% immunity criminally and civilly even in cases of clear negligence...then that will have consequences as well.

But that is only half the story. What about conscience? You are putting the assessment of risk of individuals owning guns on the shoulders of doctors. Character references are one thing. But asking a trained professional to get right in the middle of this process and make an assessment of the nature you propose could be problematic.Now I am not a doctor...so I wont speak for them...but I think it might be a tough sell for many.

We do have doctors that post here. I am sure some may chime in on whether they would place themselves in this position. They may well fee compelled to do so given the state of things currently. Who knows.

My experience with this is from a very different angle...but related. I work on aircraft for a living. There is much liability in aircraft maintenance. We fix or repair things and then make legal statements regarding the repairs. But we refrain from making statements about the aircraft as a whole and we refrain from making statements regarding the future of the aircraft. So that is what is driving my objection.
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