I just finished this podcast. It was very light and had little “meat” to it, so to speak, but let’s have a look.

@najmadoc rightly states gun violence is on the rise in Canada. It doesn’t take long to immediately drum up imagery of and claims the gun lobby writes their laws. https://twitter.com/surgery_101/status/1390324068704866306

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but what I do know is has over 600% more gun deaths per capita then , and should not be where we immediately turn every time we talk about laws here.

Regardless, she mentions physicians roles in advocating the harms of tobacco and the benefits of seat belts. I agree. I can easily search for studies supporting these claims and find multiple.

I can’t do the same to support the gun bans proposed by Najma and her peers.

As many are sure to know, I read through each cited study posted on the Docs4Protection website. I found no supporting evidence to back up their position statement.

In fact, I found MANY that contradicted it. https://twitter.com/dicky_paul_95/status/1341794479007739905

So when she claims “scientific evidence is needed to shape policy” and “evidence based advocacy”, I have to ask- where is this evidence?

She briefly touches on C21, and makes a claim that drives me bonkers.

“The introduction of red and yellow flag laws... is a new and novel thing”

She then states victims would be allowed to contact police and alert them of safety concerns to have firearms removed.

This is the law now, Najma. It has been the law for almost 30 years. It really grinds my gears how many times I have to point this out to doctors advocating for red flag laws. Stating a victim cannot do that now is wrong and dangerous as some may believe you, as a doctor. Stop.

She then mentions the medical organizations that support their position statement. But as I already noted, their position statement doesn’t seem to be supported by scientific evidence.

So how can this be? Is it that it sounds good and therefore must be? Is that science today?

There isn’t much else, this was a light interview by someone who admires Najma. The podcast is apparently listened to by many students, so it would have been nice to provide some research for them to read and understand how she gets to her position statement.

A final quote to sum up my issue, “knowing what I know and what the evidence shows...”.

What do you know?

Please point to the evidence that shows us you are correct.

And please stop lying about our red flag laws.

#cdnpoli
@BillBlair