Some docs rip NRA, say #ThisIsOurLane after Chicago Mercy Hospital shooting rampage

John Bacon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Chicago hospital shooting kills 3 in 'mass chaos' A Chicago police officer and two hospital workers were killed Monday in a grisly shooting at Mercy Hospital on the city's South Side. The gunman, Juan Lopez, was also killed.

The NRA's suggestion that "self-important" physicians who support banning semiautomatic weapons should "stay in their lane" was drawing fire on social media after a doctor was fatally shot in a Chicago hospital late Monday.

"You know who are still at work? The doctors and staff at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, IL, during and after a violent attack, because literally #ThisIsOurLane," tweeted physician Shelley Sahu, a hematologist at the National Institutes of Health.

Tweeted Boston pediatric surgeon Peter Masiakos: "The lane goes right through our hospitals. @ThisIsOurLane"

Emergency room doctor Tamara O'Neal, pharmacy resident Dayna Less and Chicago police officer Samuel Jimenez were fatally shot at Mercy Hospital on the city's South Side by a former fiance of O'Neal, police said. The shooter, identified by family members as Juan Lopez, 32, also died in the carnage.

The shooting came less than two weeks after the NRA took to social media to blast the American College of Physicians and the professional journal Annals of Internal Medicine for publishing a series of articles supporting tighter gun laws.

"Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane," the NRA said in the tweet. "Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control."

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. https://t.co/oCR3uiLtS7 — NRA (@NRA) November 7, 2018

The NRA, in its own article linked to its tweet, claims the journal based its position on faulty evidence. Most of the research is "poorly done" and was designed to reach a predetermined result, the NRA claims.

It dismisses as "hobbies" the efforts by physicians to move the needle on gun control. The NRA position got some pushback from the medical profession when it appeared on social media, and plenty more after the Chicago shooting.

"Lemme guess, ⁦@NRA⁩, still not “our lane” even when it happens in our own hospitals?" tweeted Chicago surgeon Emil Fernando. "I don’t think so. #EndGunViolence ⁦@ThisIsOurLane⁩ ⁦@Chicago_Police⁩ ⁦@MercyChicago⁩ ⁦@GunDeaths⁩"

More: Police officer among 4 dead in 'horrific' Chicago hospital shooting

More: Medical professionals to NRA: Guns are our lane

Elizabeth Stephenson, a cardiologist at the The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, tweeted that "#ThisisOurLane when bullets kill our patients #ThisisOurLane when bullets kill our family - and make no mistake - she was our family, whether we were lucky enough to know her or not. @choo_ek @ThisIsOurLane"

Teresa Sellers, who cares for dementia patients, was more pointed. "Maybe the NRA can wipe up blood and hold the hands of the innocent while they die...and get the reality of the lane that is being discussed," she tweeted. "Hell Fire the world laughs that we are still in the cowboy ways!"

You know who are still at work? The doctors and staff at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, IL, during and after a violent attack, because literally #ThisIsOurLane — shelley sahu (@SahuShelley) November 19, 2018

Houston surgeon Joseph Mills tweeted that "Even in time of war, hospitals are supposed to be off limits. It's time to take a deep breath and re-examine the American public consciousness @USSenate @USHouseofReps Is anyone Listening?#EndGunViolence #ThisIsMyLane @ThisIsOurLane @MomsDemand @choo_ek @JosephSakran @scrubbedin"

Eugene Gu, a politically active surgeon who once sued President Donald Trump, tweeted that "The NRA told doctors to stay in their lane and now there’s a shooting at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. Doctors can be patients and victims of gun violence too. We’re all in this together as human beings who just want to live and come home to our families. Enough is enough."

Gu's tweet was retweeted more than 17,000 times.

"There’s no greater horror for a doctor than to operate on a colleague who was shot. Or to declare your friend dead. But for the doctors, patients, and first responders at Mercy Hospital, this is their lane," Gu tweeted later.