Kids, pediatricians, and guns

My 5-year-old son had a doctor's appointment the other day. As part of the appointment, my wife was asked to fill out a safety questionnaire. As I wasn't there, I'm a bit unclear on whether this was mandatory. Among the questions about taking safety precautions like putting life vests on our children while canoeing was the question of whether there were guns in the home. My wife simply lied on the form and marked "No". Her attitude was that the police are the only ones who need to know that, and they already do. (To which my response was, "No, they don't!" But I live in New Jersey, so it's unavoidable.)

I'd seen references to people getting questionnaires like this elsewhere, but I was unprepared for it to happen to us. Had I received this questionnaire in my unprepared state, my response would likely have been, "None of this is any of your f***ing business!" Had I had some time to think about it, and had I been the one given this questionnaire, I likely would have responded in a better fashion: "Oh, how interesting! Given that this is intended to educate parents about safety for their children, do you have any material I could read to better understand how to keep my children safe?"