MD Magazine recently polled its readers about guns and gun control laws and found many of its 928 respondents harbor very strong feelings about the hot-button issue.
Highlighted below are five takeaways from the physician survey.
1. More than half (55.3 percent) of the respondents said they own at least one gun and roughly two-thirds (65.2 percent) say they use their gun(s) for protection.
2. A majority (53.3 percent) indicated they are in favor of more gun control measures, including better background checks (93.8 percent), a ban on assault weapons (68.9 percent) and magazine size limits (61.5 percent).
3. Despite the overwhelming support for more gun control measures, physicians are split on whether they should get involved. Out of 901 respondents to this specific question, 43.6 percent said physicians are not responsible for curbing gun violence and 40.3 percent said yes, physicians have a role in the matter.
4. More than half (57.7 percent) do not think the American Medical Association should take a stance on gun control.
5. Overall, 42.3 percent of the physicians said they have asked a patient if they own a gun. All total, 890 people responded to this question.
For more survey results and comments, click here.
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