DOCTORS FOR SENSIBLE GUN LAWS
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
DATE: 10 January, 2001

A welcome message from Dr. William B Rogers:

Greetings to each of you. By placing your email address on our newsletter list, you have indicated your interest in better communications among health care professionals on issues related to the private ownership of firearms, and the necessity for our lawmakers to pass only "sensible" gun laws.

Many of you have asked how you can join Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws, and you have kindly asked how you can support the group financially (more on that later). At this stage in the evolution of DSGL there is really nothing to join other than the newsletter list. The newsletter supports the mission of the web page, which is to serve as an information clearing house and a locus of support for physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, scientists, and members of any healthcare related profession who are interested in the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

A corollary interest is the mis-information and "junk science" that has been used by some
of our colleagues as a basis for concluding that the private ownership of firearms constitutes some kind of "public health problem". We are fortunate to have some real-scientist, PhD-types who eagerly participate in revealing the faults and falsehoods of these results-oriented, politically motivated studies.

The Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws web site (http://www.keepandbeararms.com/dsgl)
is our gift to each of you. I know I certainly have found the site useful, and I hope you have as well. I hope to see it grow with interesting articles (write some yourself and send them to us), links to reference sites, and the use of all the resources of our host site, http://www.keepandbeararms.com/.  Visit the chat rooms and bulletin boards of that site. Please don't forget those resources are there. And as you surf around on the site, note that there are efforts well underway to assist networking among the clergy, senior citizens, law enforcement officers, and more...all formed and being supported by the resources at KeepandBearArms.com.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I had no idea how VERY expensive it is to create and maintain a secure, high-quality web site--as opposed to the "free sites" of Medscape.com and WebMD.com-- proving once again, that you get what you pay for... if you're lucky! Those of us that were in on the original design and creation of the powerhouse known as KeepandBearArms.com have so far used upwards of $100,000.00 worth of time, talent, effort and personal dollars. Really good programmers don't come cheap...and you should see the cost of the security we had to put in after we had our first anti-gun hackers.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I ask for your financial support of DSGL by participating as fully as you can in KeepandBearArms.com. Buy a membership. Heck, buy a lifetime membership! Participate in the raffles. Use the clickthrough services to buy the products that we offer if it is something you need and would have bought elsewhere anyway.

Dr. Mike Brown (mbrown@reflexnet.net) is serving as our webmaster, and he would dearly love to hear your ideas and suggestions for what we could do with DSGL.

Welcome to DSGL, friends. Here are my two requests of you:

1. USE the web site. Support it and KeepandBearArms.com any way that you can.
2. Tell your colleagues, friends and family members about DSGL. Talk it up at your staff meetings, society meetings, and curbside consults over the coffee pot.

The next DSGL electronic newsletter should arrive soon.

Yours most sincerely,
William B. Rogers, MD
Director and Co-founder: DSGL
wrogers@keepandbeararms.com