Should guns be banned in hospitals? [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Monday, 01.16.12Posted on Monday, 01.16.12
Should guns be banned in hospitals?

The South Florida hospital association is once again asking the Legislature to ban guns in hospitals, but the gun lobby is adamantly opposed and legislators are showing little interest.

By John Dorschner
[e-mail]

In Florida, it’s against the law to carry a gun into a school, an athletic event, a jail, a police station or a local government meeting. Not so with hospitals, where it remains perfectly legal to pack heat.

For years, Linda Quick of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association has wanted to change that. Just before each session of the Legislature, when her group publishes its agenda, it includes a talking point: “Add ‘licensed hospitals and nursing homes’ to the Safety Zone provisions of the Concealed Weapons Law.”

The agenda item is once again on the association’s list as the 2012 legislative session gets under way. “It’s just common sense,” says Quick. “You don’t want guns in schools. Why on earth would you want them in hospitals?”

Fat chance, says Marion Hammer, the Tallahassee lobbyist for the National Rifle Association who has fought successfully for years against adding hospitals to the list. “NRA would oppose a bill that panders to the anti-gun political agenda of South Florida organizations,’’ she wrote in an email to The Herald.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/16/2592595/should-guns-be-banned-in-hospitals.html