Doctors Slam NRA ’s Directive to ‘Stay in Their Lane’ After Chicago Hospital Shooting

After a shooting at Mercy Hospital in Chicago killed three people, including two hospital workers, doctors across the country are continuing to speak out against gun violence — and they’re pushing back on the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) admonition that they should “stay in their lane.” Earlier this month, the NRA responded to an Annals of Internal Medicine position paper on the urgency of reducing firearm fatalities with a tweet directing “self-important anti-gun doctors” to “stay in their lane.” The backlash from the medical community was swift and strong, with many doctors taking to social media to share their own experiences with gun violence — from treating trauma and suicide victims to counseling patients dealing with the psychological fallout of gun violence years later — under the hashtag #ThisIsOurLane. “This one tweet from the NRA galvanized physicians into a grassroots movement in a way that nothing else has,” says Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. “Five years ago, the reaction from doctors would not have been anywhere as strong as it has been in this context. There’s been a real shift in our public consciousness about the centrality of medicine and health in dealing with guns.” 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...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime medicine onetime Source Type: news