Florida’s first of its kind law restricting doctors from informing patients about the risks of owning a gun, is no longer valid.
Doctor Louis St. Petery, with the Florida Pediatric Society which challenged enforcement of the law, said one of the first funerals he went to when he started his practice was of his own patient, killed by an older sibling who found a loaded gun in a bedside table.
“And that shouldn’t happen and the NRA claimed we were interfering with their Second Amendment rights to hold and bear arms, that’s not really true.”
The bill endorsed by the National Rifle Association initially called for million-dollar fines against doctors who questioned patients. But U.S. District Judge Martha Cooke has permanently thrown out the law saying it violates the First Amendment rights of doctors to provide truthful, non-misleading information about gun safety.