Quote

Handguns are a public health issue.

Joycelyn Elders

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Joycelyn Elders
Age: 91
Born: 1933
Born: August 13
Former Surgeon General Of The United States
Pediatrician
Physician
Politician
Scientist
Minnie Joycelyn Elders
Handguns
Issue
Health
Issues
Public

More quotes by Joycelyn Elders

Image
We know that there are several predisposing factors to gun violence: poverty, lack of education, lack of good parenting, lack of jobs, living in an environment where violence is seen every day, all the time. And children being born to children are likely to have all of these predisposing factors.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
But I'm saying we are loosing the people who are going to pay my social security. And that bothers me.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Gun owners would have to be evaluated by how they scored on written and firing tests, and have to pass the tests in order to own a gun. And I would tax the guns, bullets and the license itself very heavily.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
If you say children wouldn't know anything about masturbation on their own, you've never changed a little boy's diaper.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Marijuana is beneficial to many patients
Joycelyn Elders
Image
You can't educate a child who isn't healthy, and you can't keep a child healthy who isn't educated.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Condoms will break, but I can assure you that vows of abstinence will break more easily than condoms.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
My biggest challenge is to educate the American people, to make access to health care available for all, and to make sure that prevention plays a big part in health care. In the case of guns, prevention means we prevent homicides and devastating, expensive gun injuries by preventing those who shouldn't have guns from getting their hands on guns.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Judge Thomas was a man who had used the system to get where he wanted to be, but then felt that everyone else should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
... black women have always found that in the social order of things we're the least likely to be believed--by anyone.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
[We must] deal with all of the contributing factors to gun violence as a whole, because it's like a leaky bucket - if you've got a bucket with six holes shot through it, [and] you plug up five, you've still got a leaky bucket.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
It is often easier for our children to obtain a gun than it is to find a good school.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
[On masturbation:] I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Guns kill more teenagers than the other big killers - heart disease, cancer, and AIDS - combined.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
I feel that we can't educate children who are not healthy, and we can't keep them healthy if they're not educated. There has to be a marriage between health and education. You can't learn if your mind is full of unhealthy images from daily life and confusion about right and wrong.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
We can begin to address the issue of guns by teaching our young people how to deal with situations in nonviolent ways. Someone said to me the other day, What our adolescents need is not so much health care, but healthy caring, and I agree. Parents and churches need to provide that. Curricula in our schools [need to] provide that.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
I always say my God will take care of me. If it's my time I'll go, and if it's not I won't. I feel that He really has a lot of important things for me to do. And He's going to make sure that I'm here to do them.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Homicide, often involving guns, is a disease that is the leading cause of death for young black men, and the second-leading cause of death for all people aged fifteen to twenty-four. That makes it the leading health issue, particularly when guns are used in combination with drugs and alcohol. And the statistics show that is most often the case.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
Doctor, I have more education than most white people.
Joycelyn Elders
Image
If men went through menopause, we'd know everything about it, but we still don't even know if we should be taking hormones.
Joycelyn Elders