Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt has been one of the drivers of the smear campaign against Vivek Murthy, President Obama’s nominee for surgeon general, who has earned the ire of GOA and the NRA for daring to suggest that gun safety is related to public health.
One of the gun groups’ beefs with Murthy is that his group, Doctors for America, opposed Florida’s NRA-backed gag rule preventing physicians from asking patients about gun ownership in order to talk with them about firearm safety.
In an interview with WorldNetDaily yesterday, Pratt claimed that doctors who talk to their patients about gun safety are in fact reporting the information to the government like “German and Soviet doctors would send to the regime information about the people that were in their care.”
Murthy’s opposition to the gag rule, Pratt declared, “shows that he does not understand medical ethics,” is a “willing tool of the state” and “looks at himself as a government functionary before he considers anything about medicine.”
Later in the interview, Pratt insisted that such information from doctors would somehow end up in a national database and be hacked by a 14-year-old because “once you put information on a computer, then it’s anybody’s game” and “grandchildren are particularly adept at computers.”
WND: What is the greatest concern about this potential nomination? Is it the fact that he’s encouraging doctors to find out information on the Second Amendment usage of their patients, or is there more to it than that?
Pratt: His urging that particular policy shows that he does not understand medical ethics. That is such a question so far outside of anything to do with medicine, that it shows that he’s a willing tool of the state, even as German doctors and Soviet doctors would send to the regime information about the people that were in their care. This is an extremely alarming attitude. This guy clearly looks at himself as a government functionary before he considers anything about medicine.
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WND: Let’s say the doctors did feel pressure to ask the questions to the patients about whether they own firearms and if so what kind of usage they participate in. What happens if that kind of information is collected?
Pratt: Once you put information on a computer, then it’s anybody’s game. I mean, grandchildren are particularly adept at computers. I would say a 14-year-old would be able to obtain that data no matter what.
