"This is our way": the ANR told the doctors to take care of their business. Then a man shot a hospital.

Lindsey Bever, the Washington Post

published

4:18 pm CST, Tuesday, November 20, 2018

An Rhode Island emergency physician said that one of his own had been "murdered" and had vowed to fight.

A trauma surgeon from Baltimore proclaimed that "gun violence was not just a statistic" and named the police officer, doctor and pharmacy resident killed Monday at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in Chicago.

REPETITION: shootings after school, NRA pins blame list

Doctors and nurses from Atlanta and Chicago to New York and Washington and even abroad expressed their anger and anguish after another case of gun violence – a case reported by an emergency doctor "near his home".

They called the National Rifle Association for telling them to "stay in their hallway". They called on their colleagues to talk about gun violence. "Nobody should have to fear for his life in the hospital (or elsewhere) because of guns," tweeted a doctor.

Another asked, "Do you always ask if @ThisIsOurLane?"

"Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing, not death – schools are supposed to be places of learning, not death – churches are supposed to be places of worship, not death," said Monday. at the airport Twitter, Monday, June 22, Eugene Gu. following the deadly shooting at the Chicago Hospital. "Our country is supposed to be the United States of America, not a war-torn battlefield."

Calls for action come after the NRA ordered doctors to "stay in their hallway" earlier this month, suggesting that gun policy is the domain of the NRA . This triggered a brutal reaction from health professionals across the United States and abroad, expressing their disdain on social media with the #ThisIsOurLane hashtag.

The Chicago shooting still fueled the flames, prompting health professionals to express their opinions.

As Frances Stead Sellers of the Washington Post reported:

The NRA tweet was motivated by a statement from the American College of Physicians published Oct. 30 by the Annals of Internal Medicine under the title "Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States". ". ACP countries have recommended "a public health approach to gun violence and the prevention of firearms-related injuries and deaths", indicating that the medical profession has "special responsibility" to take say on the prevention of such injuries and support "appropriate regulation of the purchase of lawful firearms", among other measures.

"The College recognizes that any such regulation must be consistent with the Supreme Court's decision that individual gun ownership is a constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Charter of Rights," he said. the newspaper.

The NRA criticized, first with an editorial on November 2, saying that the ACP newspaper "reflected the wish list of all opponents to the shooter, except for the disproportionate role attributed to doctors", and accusing the group of To be "only interested in pseudoscience". evidence "that supports their preferred anti-weapon policies".

Then, on November 7, just hours before Marine Ian David Long, 28, launched his attack on the Thousand Oaks Borderline Bar and Grill, the NRA aired its provocative tweet.

"Someone should tell the anti-gun doctors to stay on their way." Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine insist on gun control, but the most upsetting, however, is the community. Medical seems to have consulted NONE. "

The Annals of Internal Medicine responded in the same way.

In an editorial published Tuesday in the medical journal, doctors said that the NRA "does not think that the injuries caused by a firearm and its prevention are the responsibility of doctors."

"We could not disagree any more," they wrote.

"If you are not convinced and need examples of why firearms are a health problem, here are a few: People who have suffered an accidental firearm injury have almost always in need of acute medical care, and many have health problems related to chronic injury Nearly 40 Firearms are a common and highly effective means of suicide, so talk with patients who may be at risk of suicide. their access to firearms is clearly in our queue. "

The editorial also said that doctors and nurses are responsible for performing surgical operations to try to save the lives of victims in such situations and to inform families when they are still dying.

"These responsibilities are not solely the responsibility of doctors, they are our job," the doctors wrote. "As a result, the same goes for advocating for policies that reduce the number of firearm injuries and to conduct research to better inform policies to protect our patients."

The NRA did not immediately respond to the Washington Post's requests for comment.

After the shooting in Chicago, the medical community came back on Twitter, extending its prayers and pledging to fight. The victims were identified as the Chicago Police Officer, Samuel Jimenez; Tamara O'Neal, Emergency Physician; and a first-year pharmacy resident, Dayna Less, according to the Chicago Tribune.