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EMERGENCIES
Continued from page 15 “no guns allowed” signs. We also should ask them to remove gun-
free zones from as many places as possible in Texas. And finally, we
GUN-FREE ZONES ‘IMMORAL’ should petition our hospital administrators to change their “no gun”
We must allow our physicians, nurses and technicians who have policies and allow staff to carry until our legislature changes the law.
Let’s stop the “Stopwatch of Death,” once and for all.
the training and willingness to protect us to have effective tools avail-
able to do the necessary job. Concealed license holders have been REFERENCES
shown to commit fewer crimes than the general population and even
police officers. Would it not be better to set up a program to arm Buckeye Firearms. K.I.D.S. – A Proactive Approach to School Murders. Jun 2012
our trusted colleagues and coordinate with law enforcement to pro- Buckeye Firearms. The Cause and Effect of Rapid Mass Murder. Jul 2014
tect staff, patients and families in our hospitals? If we must run and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Active Shooter — How to Respond.
hide from the active killer threat and cannot avoid direct confronta- Oct 2008
tion, we should not disarm those who would have effective tools on Stanford Hospitals and Clinics Risk Consulting. The Active Shooter — The New
hand at the scene. It is immoral to continue the fallacy of “gun-free Threat in Healthcare. Apr 2011
zones” in our hospitals when experience shows that deranged killers Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Councils. Active Shooter Plan-
go out of their way to select such places to do their mass killing. Ac- ning and Response in a Healthcare Setting. Jan 2014
cepting this reality will require a culture change among some staff
and hospital administration. We are the last resort when all else fails. John Edeen, MD, is a pediatric orthopaedic sur-
geon in San Antonio and serves on the Bexar
We doctors should take the lead in this moral undertaking, joined County Medical Society Emergency Preparedness
by our co-workers in nursing and the allied health professions. We Committee. He is a graduate of Massad Ayoob’s
should contact our state representatives and state senators to ask them MAG-40 and is a certified National Rifle Associ-
to remove the requirement of hospitals and nursing homes to post ation pistol instructor.
16 San Antonio Medicine • March 2015
