means that you can't sue your doctor for asking... but it also means you can POLITELY tell him/her it is none of his/her concern... You are not obligated to answer questions from your doctor. If for example a person goes into his doctor and states he would like a prescription sleeping pill do to stress from being unemployed for 8 months, and his dog died, that patient can not answer, deny, or lie to the physician about firearms in the home, etc.
It is none of their business, however, I have no problem with it being mandatory that if a physician(s) determine that an individual does have a genuine mental illness, drug addiction, or suffers from severe depression and needs a prescription drug that falls within certain a certain class of the drug spectrum to treat said illnesses, the physicians then have a mandatory obligation to immediately notify law enforcement in order that the information be entered into NICS which will put up a TEMPORARY red flag/hold on any firearm purchases.
Example, a fellow loses his job... he ends up getting treated for depression with drugs because it is so severe that he can't function otherwise, NO GUN PURCHASES, he recovers and is no longer under a physicians care, well the red flag gets removed from NICS.
A mentally ill person that life long drug prescriptions... NO GUN PURCHASE EVER.
Will this stop everything, NO... Will a very small percentage of people avoid going to a doctor and being diagnosed with a mental illness in order to not get a red flag? Maybe, probably, but sometimes, evil just can't be stopped no matter how many laws are on the books.
There needs to be language that if a physician does not provide the required information to law enforcement at time of prescription and then the patient commits a violent act, then the doctor is held culpable as in a conspiracy type scheme. But on the other hand, there needs to be language that will prevent doctors from being sued for inadvertent entry of derogatory information into NICS. Mistakes happen, people sometimes can't buy an airplane ticket because somehow they ended up on a NO FLY LIST. The legitimate people complain, an investigation occurs and they are taken off if not a threat. Life goes on...
This won't stop all gun violence from LEGALLY purchased firearms, but it will be a great start.
I don't have a problem with ALL firearm transactions going through a NICS check. I do think there needs to be language that the an FFL is required to conduct NICS checks between private party's and that they can charge a fee that doesn't exceed more than 10% of the final selling price of the firearm.
A guy selling a mossberg shotgun to another guy for a hundred bucks should get charged $10.00 not to exceed $25.00 for the gun dealer to call it in and fill out a form...
A guy privately sells a Merkel shotgun for $20,000.00 should not get charged
