Doctors fire back at NRA after tweet telling physicians to ‘stay in their lane’

Doctors are firing back on Twitter with the hashtag “ThisISourlane,” sharing graphic and heartbreaking stories of treating gunshot victims in response to a tweet by the National Rifle Association that chides physicians for being “anti-gun” and tells them to “stay in their lane.”

The NRA tweet came hours before a gunman in Thousand Oaks, California, killed 13 people in the Borderline Bar and Grill and wounding 18 others. A little more than a week and a half earlier, 11 people were shot dead in a synagogue in Pittsburgh — two of the latest instances of high-casualty mass shootings that have grabbed national attention and added to the debate of gun rights versus legislation.

Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. 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. https://t.co/oCR3uiLtS7

— NRA (@NRA) November 7, 2018

In response, doctors and emergency physicians across the country took to Twitter posting photos of bloody-hospital room floors, stained scrubs and splattered face masks detailing daily ordeals of treating gunshot victims and the struggle of telling families when patients die.

“@NRA says docs should “stay in [our] lane. My lane is a pregnant woman shot in a moment of rage by her partner,” Stephanie Bonne, a trauma surgeon at University Hospital Newark wrote on twitter.

“She survived because the baby stopped the bullet. Have you ever had to deliver a shattered baby?”

.@NRA says docs should “stay in [our] lane.

My lane is a pregnant woman shot in a moment of rage by her partner. She survived because the baby stopped the bullet. Have you ever had to deliver a shattered baby? #ThisisMyLane . What’s yours? #Docs4GunSense

— Stephanie Bonne (@scrubbedin) November 9, 2018

#ThisisMyLane … @NRA Come to the trauma bay; see first-hand what an emergency thoracotomy looks like trying to save a gunshot victim without vital signs. Come with us as we tell a mother her child has died from gun violence. Yup, this is definitely OUR lane. https://t.co/Qb3za76FzR

— Sara Shanahan (@SaraShanahan_MD) November 10, 2018

I fix blood vessels for a living. When you work at a major trauma center, that means fixing blood vessels shredded by bullets. My lane is paved by the broken bodies left behind by your products. #ThisisMyLane https://t.co/IzezudNBUf

— Westley Ohman (@westleyohman) November 9, 2018

Dear @NRA ,
Until you’re covered in blood and pronounce someone dead in the trauma bay, or told a mother that her child is dead, or sewed someone’s scalp together so their family doesn’t have to see their brain matter, please don’t tell me what my lane is. #thisismylane https://t.co/u5QX7VUaKX

— Danielle Kay (@KayDaniellei) November 10, 2018

The NRA tweet contained a link to an essay criticizing the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine for their “hobby” of “opining on firearms policy”, specifically the latest published report on the American College of Physicians’ position on treating gun violence as a public health emergency and advocating for legislation to prevent fire-arm injuries and deaths.

The NRA called this position paper “every anti-gunner’s public policy wish list” and criticized the ACP for relying on research that is “limited” and “inconclusive.”

The position paper, published Oct. 30, updates previous calls by the ACP — the world’s largest society of specialty physicians — on efforts to reduce gun violence, including protecting the right of physicians to speak with patients about safe gun storage and advocating for evidence-based policies to reduce fire-arm injuries and deaths.

“The ACP has pressed for the adoption of policies to reduce the number of deaths and injuries related to firearms for more than 20 years and is disheartened by the lack of action to protect the American public,” the authors wrote in the policy paper. “Although there is more to learn about the causes of firearm violence and the best methods to prevent it, the available data support the need for a multifaceted and comprehensive approach to reducing firearm violence that is consistent with the Second Amendment.”