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Earlier this week the National Rifle Association posted a tweet that criticized doctors for supporting gun control and advised them to “stay in their lane.” Now the doctors are pushing back on Twitter.
“Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,” the NRA wrote in its tweet on Wednesday. “Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves.”
Since the NRA posted that tweet, medical professionals have taken to Twitter to let the powerful gun lobby know that #ThisIsOurLane.
I am a psychiatrist who trained in the US
I was trained to asked every single suicidal patient about guns before they went home
I saw countless patients with PTSD from gunshot wounds
I work in Canada now
I haven’t had a single patient with a gunshot wound#thisisourlane
— Dr Javeed Sukhera (@javeedsukhera) November 10, 2018
Dear @NRA,
What should I tell my patient who has severe daily headaches for the past 9 years from the bullet lodged in her head. Doctors were unable to remove it because of the location. She had a restraining order against the shooter.#ThisISMyLane #ThisISOurLane— Linda Girgis, MD (@DrLindaMD) November 11, 2018
I’m going to guess you’ve never taken care of a patient who has been a victim of gun violence. Get back to us when you have. #thisisourlane #guncontrol @NRA https://t.co/RQgvNXGkLS
— Brittany Hasty, MD, MHPE (@brittnhasty) November 8, 2018
I am a young emergency physician and I have already lost count of the number of kids I’ve seen die from GSWs. You’re here to make money and we’re here to save lives. Get out of OUR LANE. #ThisIsOURLane
— Regina Royan, MD MPH (@ReginaRoyan) November 9, 2018
I would like to graciously extend the invitation to the author of this tweet and anyone else from the NRA to join me at the hospital the next time I care for a child who has been hurt or killed by a gun that wasn’t safely stored or was an innocent bystander. #ThisIsOurLane https://t.co/vQg3BsjYyJ
— Jeannie Moorjani, MD (@JeanMoorjani) November 8, 2018
@NRA Tell that to the 19y/o kid that I saw in the ED who was shot in his back and lost all sensation in his leg, just by being at the wrong place. Or to the 25 y/o who came in with a tension pneumo and had to get intubated and operated on after being shot #ThisIsOurLane https://t.co/ZKzy3IhlV8
— Ali Ahmed (@AliAhmed2358) November 10, 2018
Hi, NRA. I work psychiatry. My patients die because of guns. We have clear evidence that with fewer guns, people do not change their means to attempt suicide- they get help. Means restriction is a big part of safety planning. This is MY lane. #ThisIsOurLane #GunControlNow https://t.co/Zz0gYDCjNi
— Chelsea A (@ChelseaArata) November 9, 2018
When doctors make recommendations about salt intake, no one accuses us of being “anti-sodium.” No one tells us to stay in our lane. Seeking to reduce bullet intake doesn’t make us anti-gun. It makes us pro-health. #LifeIsOurLane #ThisIsOurLane https://t.co/DFtcpTVey0
— Amy Goldberg (@AJGTempleSurg) November 10, 2018
.@NRA says doctors should stay in our lane:
We prepare for a 3 yo self-inflicted GSW. He arrives: Perfect except for the hole in his head. Intubate thru brain matter in his throat. Hold mom’s hand while telling her there is no hope.
Vow NEVER AGAIN thru the tears#ThisIsOurLane— Sage Myers, MD MSCE (@Redsoxma) November 10, 2018
The medical community’s outcry against the NRA’s tweet wasn’t limited to the #ThisIsOurLane hashtag. The common theme was that these doctors have to deal with the victims of gun violence on a regular basis and, as a result, are amply qualified on both a professional and moral level to support gun control legislation.
As a Trauma Surgeon and survivor of #GunViolence I cannot believe the audacity of the @NRA to make such a divisive statement.
We take care of these patients everyday. Where are you when I’m having to tell all those families their loved one has died. @DocsDemand #Docs4GunSense https://t.co/XrY1G3hIi2
— Joseph Sakran (@JosephSakran) November 7, 2018
Not only are we not going to “stay in our lane”, but we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that Americans in communities all across this nation our protected from these senseless tragedies.
— Joseph Sakran (@JosephSakran) November 7, 2018
We are not self-important: we are important to the care of others
We are not anti-gun: we are anti-bullet holes in our patients
We consult with everyone but extremists
Most upsetting, actually, is death and disability from gun violence that is unparalleled in the world https://t.co/E8qz3lewK7— Esther Choo MD MPH (@choo_ek) November 8, 2018
Having to perform a Cesarean section on a dead pregnant teenager with a gunshot wound to the head in the trauma bay of the Emergency Department is something that NEVER leaves your memory. The @NRA has a lot of gall telling us physicians to stay in our lane…
— Ian Fields MD (@eeyanmiller) November 8, 2018
I take care of dying people. It can take weeks–WEEKS–for someone to die from a gunshot wound to the head. I have watched it. I have cared for these patients and their families. Until you take care of people like we do, stay in YOUR lane. This IS ours. #medtwitter #enough
— Liana Eskola, DO (@LianaEskola) November 9, 2018
One San Francisco-based forensic pathologist, Dr. Judy Melinek, was interviewed by The Guardian about a tweet she posted denouncing the NRA’s position that doctors need to butt out of gun control conversations.
Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isn’t just my lane. It’s my bading highway. https://t.co/48S9UIFaV2
— Judy Melinek M.D. (@drjudymelinek) November 9, 2018
“I was just so incensed,” Melinek explained. “I was so angry, thus the foul language. Here I was, going into work for a case that involved a gunshot wound. I had another one earlier this week. And I was just so incensed that anyone would put down doctors who try every single day to try and save people’s lives.”
She later added, “We aren’t against the second amendment. What we are against is not researching, not putting effort into researching, and not putting the funding into researching what can be used to prevent gun violence and death, whether it’s trigger locks, security, training or the idea of requiring insurance and having people have insurance in case their gun is used to kill someone else. We need to have the research and we need to have the data to back it up, and right now that’s not happening.”
The abstract from the American College of Physicians paper that incurred the NRA’s ire clearly established that it was approaching the issue of gun violence as a public health problem.
“Firearm violence continues to be a public health crisis in the United States that requires the nation’s immediate attention,” the abstract explained. “The ACP is concerned about not only the alarming number of mbad shootings in the United States but also the daily toll of firearm violence in neighborhoods, homes, workplaces, and public and private places across the country. The policy recommendations in this paper build on, strengthen, and expand current ACP policies approved by the Board of Regents in April 2014 and are based on an badysis of approaches that the evidence suggests will be effective in reducing deaths and injuries from firearm-related violence. The ACP has long advocated for policies to reduce the rate of firearm injuries and deaths in the United States and once again calls on its members, nonmember physicians, nonphysician clinicians, policymakers, and the public to take action on this important issue.”
Matthew Rozsa
Matthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and is ABD in his PhD program in History at Lehigh University. His work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.
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