States’ Rights to Protect Gun-Owning Patients from Politicized Physician Speech

Abstract

Recent mass shootings place patients’ gun rights in the public spotlight and may lead some physicians to discriminate against or harass law-abiding, gun-owning patients by expressing personal political views on gun ownership inside the patient-physician relationship in ways unrelated to patients’ medical care. Politicized physician gun speech is subject to regulation by state licensing authorities using their police powers, and laws compelling physician silence regarding non-medical gun advice are within States’ rights under the U.S. Constitution — including laws prohibiting physicians from discriminating against their lawful, gun-owning patients, from harassing those patients, and/or from making unnecessary inquiries or notations in their medical records.