In the latest victory for gun owners in a long, back-and-forth battle, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta lifted an injunction that had blocked enforcement of a law protecting gun owners’ rights in Florida.
The Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act barred doctors from asking patients about gun ownership, or keeping records on patients’ gun ownership, unless medically necessary. Although the law was signed in 2011, a federal judge in Miami had blocked its enforcement, claiming it violated doctors’ right to free speech.
This is the second time federal courts have upheld the law. What’s important are the rights the law protects: the right of gun owners and their families to keep and bear arms, their right to privacy in the exercise of that right, and their right not to be interrogated, lectured and put on record by a socialized medical system that’s increasingly becoming a tool of the state.
