Health professionals, including a Temple University Hospital medical officer, are speaking out against gun violence.
Last week, the National Rifle Association tweeted to tell health professionals, namely the American College of Physicians, the world’s largest medical-specialty society, to “stay in their lane,” after several authored a position paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine calling for the United States to address firearm violence with public health-minded solutions.
The tweet came before another mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, which raised the 2018 total to 307 acts of mass gun violence so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an ongoing database for shootings in the U.S.
Medical professionals from public health institutions across the country replied to the NRA’s tweet with photos of bloody scrubs and operating rooms, arguing that gun violence is a health issue that lies “in their lane.”
Dr. Tony Reed, a TUH associate chief medical officer, had spoken out earlier against gun violence in public spaces, predating the #ThisIsMyLane hashtag used by medical professionals. He wrote an article in the medical publication Health Affairs in October, calling for greater security and safety protocols in school buildings after his son’s former school was attacked by a gunman.
His son attended Great Mills High School in southern Maryland. The gunman, who was a student at the school, shot and injured two students before being stopped by the school’s resource officer. The gunman
