Letter: Doctors kill more than firearms

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2001 | 8:53 a.m.

In his inaugural address, Dr. Richard F. Corlin, the new president of the American Medical Association, unveiled the AMA's new politicized agenda. It's not treatment, prevention, or cure of any disease, not the continuing education of physicians and surgeons, not a new solution for managing health care costs, but indicting the nation's 60 million peaceable firearms owners, saying, "uncontrolled use of firearms, especially handguns, is a serious threat to public health."

Before the AMA inserts itself into the daily lives of "fellow citizens" who peaceably own firearms, it should look to its own house to deal with the minority of licensed medical practitioners who have everything to do with hundreds of thousands of patients killed or maimed yearly by "medical misadventures."

The ranks of 60 million firearms owners produce about 1,000 accidental deaths each year (Centers for Disease Control numbers). Doctors, on the other hand, account for 120,000 accidental patient deaths per year. That figure is often quoted in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Perhaps the AMA should put this issue on the front burner.

Of course, none of this is meant to slight the vast majority of doctors who daily save lives. But doctors should be aware that peaceable firearms owners daily protect lives -- exercising their Second Amendment rights.

FRANK PELTESON