Kids, guns and doctors’ rights

“This is not an even-steven discussion,’’ said Dr. Joel Alpert, a pediatrician and assistant dean at Boston University School of Medicine, who is past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “This is child health against a paranoid fear about guns being taken away from someone.’’

At the heart of the issue is whether guns are a matter of public health. Supporters of the law say that they are not.

“For a doctor to be able to do his or her job, they don’t need to know whether a person owns a firearm or not,’’ said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.

The idea that firearms are out of bounds for doctors, who are committed to preventing illness and injury, is preposterous, opponents said. Between 2003 and 2007, the most recent years for which data are available, 152,519 people were killed by firearms, including more than 15,000 children and teenagers, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database that collects information from death certificates. In the same period, 138 Massachusetts children and teenagers were killed by firearms, the bulk of which were homicides. That’s more than twice the number killed while riding in a motor vehicle.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that doctors talk with families about the safe storage of guns, which can include storing ammunition separately and using a gun safe or a trigger lock. Several physicians interviewed for this story said they have supported or helped to organize programs to hand out free locks or buy back guns.

“It would almost be malpractice if the doctor didn’t talk about guns,’’ said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and author of the book “Private Guns, Public Health.’’

The Florida law sets a bad precedent of allowing government to reach into the exam room to tell doctors, “for clearly political reasons,’’ what they can and can’t talk about, Hemenway said.