Dynamite duo: Health care and gun ownership pair up

One directory is matching gun-owning patients with health care providers that respect their Second Amendment rights.

2ADoc.com – a project of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO) – connects people who want to be served by physicians and other health care providers who respect the Second Amendment and their right to gun ownership. It is doing this without inappropriately questioning them about it every time they show up to the doctor’s office by making them fill out forms acknowledging that they have guns in their household.

According to DRGO's Robert Young, M.D., this happens very frequently, and the information goes on a permanent electronic record, which could be searched or hacked.

"So we're inviting any health care provider who feels that way to get to 2ADoc.com, and sign up with the offering to serve patients who prefer to be respected, rather than lectured to, by their doctors about guns," Young explained.

The doctor recognizes the number of incidents of misuse of guns in America, but he does say that those incidents are infinitesimal compared to the vast numbers of firearms and safe gun owners, and stressed that people do not deserve to be treated as if they are potential or future perpetrators.

"We've had great interest thus far," Young noted. "We are at the stage that we are making matches, so this is not a hypothetical project – it's happening, and it's in effect now. But the more providers we get, the betterm, and we welcome all potential patient inquiries, too."

As outlined on 2ADoc.com, this directory exists only to facilitate compatible matches between patients and providers who respect the Second Amendment. The directory will not be published, and patients’ information will not appear online.

"The only thing we do is record your interest – be it as a provider or patient – and then we tell each party of the possibility of connecting," Young added. "If they both say yes, then we tell them how to get in touch with each other. We keep none of this information online, and it never goes anywhere else, and until those steps happen, it's absolutely confidential – and once they happen, it's still absolutely confidential from anyone else in the world."