Healthcare professionals nationwide are sharing photos and messages on Twitter about their own experiences with gun violence in response to a controversial tweet from the National Rifle Association.
"Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane," the NRA said in a Nov. 8 tweet, which linked to a blog post criticizing the American College of Physicians' recent paper on gun violence.
Since then, physicians across the country have responded to the tweet with photos and stories about treating gun violence victims using the hashtag #ThisIsOurLane. A Twitter account was also made with the handle @ThisIsOurLane, which has almost 10,000 followers.
"The medical community — including nurses, medics, technicians, pharmacists, social workers and doctors — stand on the front lines of caring for victims of gun violence. We see the physical damage inflicted by gunshot wounds, and we also witness the pain of those victims they leave behind," Joseph Sakran, MD, a trauma surgeon and director of emergency general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, wrote in an op-ed on the subject for CNN.
Dr. Sakran argued the NRA's tweet shows the group is not serious about addressing gun violence and said the public health crisis requires engagement from numerous stakeholders with different perspectives on the issue.
"Let me be clear: We are also not anti-gun — we are anti-bullet hole," he concluded. "It is time to stop polarizing this issue and start developing action-oriented solutions that will end gun violence in America."