Article on Physician’s Responsibility with Firearms and Elders

Marshall B. Kapp recently published an Article entitled, The Physician’s Responsibility Concerning Firearms and Older Patients, 25-SPG Kan. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 159 (2016). Provided below is a summary of the Article:

The article commences with a brief outline of firearms regulation in the United States. An enumeration of some of the specific aspects of gun ownership and possession by older persons ensues. Next, the article provides commentary on the collective role of the medical profession regarding firearms as a public health matter, followed by an articulation of ideas about the individual physician’s appropriate role at the micro level regarding firearms within the context of the physician/older patient professional relationship. Specific attention is devoted to physicians’ rights in this arena and to the policy arguments regarding converting those rights into legally enforceable obligations. The article concludes by arguing that it is undesirable for statutes mandating physician reporting and intervention to be enacted by state legislatures. However, it would be proper for common law to evolve through changes in professional practice and opinion in the direction of imposing affirmative requirements on physicians to inquire about firearms ownership or possession by older patients and to counsel certain patients and their family members regarding associated dangers. Additionally, the article contends that the law should recognize and encourage physician discretion to protect patients and third parties at foreseeable risk by intervening through notifications about suspected dangers to proper agencies and authorities. However, state statutes or judicial precedent should not mandate such protective actions.