This Is Our Lane | Daniella Castanheira

On November 7th, 2018, the NRA tweeted that, "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." This tweet was a response to a series of research papers published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that gave facts about firearm injuries and deaths. The tweet was posted mere hours before the shooting at the Borderline Bat & Grill in Thousand Oaks, and doctors took to social media to express their opinions. They posted bloody pictures of what operating rooms look like after gunshot wound operations, using the hashtag #ThisIsOurLane to spread the word. Despite their prolific reaction, gun violence research is underfunded. However, companies like the American College of Physicians and nonprofits such as the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction are hoping to advance research. They believe that doctors have a responsibility towards health and safety, and that seeing the results of gun violence reassures their want for prevention and better care going forward. 

This article was written by Jacqueline Howard on November 20, 2018, after the NRA's inflammatory tweet was posted and the #ThisIsOurLane reactions had already begun. It brings up the painfully inadequate amount of research being done on gun control, an issue that is directly tied to the 1996 Dickey amendment that forbade the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using money to advocate or promote gun control. It has been 22 years since that amendment was passed. The amount of people who have died from gun violence in that time frame is unfathomable. The CDC warns us more against lettuce-induced E. coli than it does against gun violence. This needs to change. Not just in how much coverage gun violence gets, but in how normal gun violence is to Americans today. Every life lost to gun violence is a tragedy, whether it is a homicide or suicide.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/19/health/nra-stay-in-your-lane-physicians-study/index.html