Jerry Knirk: #THIS IS OUR LANE

You may have heard of the hashtag “this is our lane.” It is in response to a tweet by the National Rifle Association in which it told physicians they had no business addressing the problem of gun violence in the United States. The NRA apparently feels that medical providers should confine themselves to cleaning up the carnage of gun violence and not address the root causes and explore solutions to the problem. The NRA should be ashamed of itself for attempting to suppress scientific inquiry.

Its tweet was in response to a position paper published by the American College of Physicians in The Annals of Internal Medicine that discussed policy recommendations for addressing the public health crisis of gun violence in the U.S. The NRA tweeted that “someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane” and stated that the “doctor’s collective hobby is opining on firearms policy.” It is not a hobby. It is our job.