How is this a Food or a Drug?

Over the last 8 years I have seen a lot of evidence that the FDA is seriously broken. As an outsider to the process it is hard to know the complete story. But controversies like the furor over BPA seem to give the strong suggestion that science is not in the driver's seat at the agency. And it certainly does not bode well for the agency's effectiveness that the AMA issued a study finding that prescription drug related deaths are on the rise.

The Government Accountability Office found that the agency does not even have clear policies for dealing with health and safety issues that might arise after something is approved. And ex-employees of the agency claim that the agency is as lax with food safety as it is with drugs. None of this speaks to a well oiled and effective Federal entity.

But on the sheer stupid side, this must take the cake. My son is "handicapped", in the very real sense. He could use many things, but an adaptive gun is not one of them. Do not misunderstand, I accept that, in a pluralistic, democratic republic, I have to accept that such things might get made and sold. A sad commentary on the state of our society, but seemingly unavoidable.

But this seems a bit much:

"Thanks to the gun's designation as a medical device, doctors could eventually write prescriptions for it and then be reimbursed by Medicare..."

Excuse me? Last year children living in hunger in the US jumped to 700,000. Before the most catastrophic job numbers in decades, about 50,000,000 Americans were living without any health insurance. We have a clear moral obligation to take care of our elderly. But if resources are finite and we have to make compromises, I would vote that children do not go to bed hungry and everyone gets catastrophic health care coverage before we make sure that grandma and grandpa have plenty of handguns and Viagra...