Insulted doctors give insolent NRA a Twitter enema Opinion: The NRA mocked physicians for wanting to treat gun violence as a "public health crisis." The doctors who deal with gunshot victims responded.

EJ Montini | The Republic | azcentral.com

Late last month the American College of Physicians published a paper titled “Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States,” a scholarly if impassioned opus you never would have known about because people like me never would have written about if the arrogant dopes at the National Rifle Association hadn’t gone out of their way to mock it.

Why?

Because for an organization that boasts of preaching gun safety, the NRA routinely shoots itself in the foot.

How foolish is it to attack medical professionals, men and women who must deal with the bloody results of gun violence every day?

Why ridicule physicians?

The doctors would like to prevent it. Or at least reduce it.

But when they offered their opinion on the subject the NRA ridiculed them with an article on their Institute for Legislative Action website, condescendingly saying how the “collective hobby” for some doctors “is opining on firearms policy.”

And the gun lobby didn’t stop there.

The doctors in their position paper call gun violence “a public health crisis.” They suggest we take “a public health approach to firearms-related violence and the prevention of firearm injuries and deaths” by developing “coalitions that bring different perspectives together on the issues of firearm injury and death. These groups, comprising health professionals, injury prevention experts, parents, teachers, law enforcement professionals, and others, should build consensus for bringing about social and legislative change.”

The NRA, unable to keep its contempt under control, fired off a tweet reading:

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

That led to a number of doctors who labor daily to save the victims of gun violence to respond in kind, issuing what amounts to a Twitter enema to the stuffed shirts at the NRA.

The mocking backfires

It’s also led to coverage in the media, which the good doctors probably never would have expected, given all the attention that’s been going to the midterm elections and every off-the-wall thing that is said and done by President Donald Trump.

Now, the doctors’ plea for action on gun violence is getting some attention thanks (ironically) to the arrogance of the NRA.

Fo example, one article quotes Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, who tweeted, "We are not anti-gun: we are anti-bullet holes in our patients. Most upsetting, actually, is death and disability from gun violence that is unparalleled in the world."

The doctors weren’t done administering their special kind of treatment for callous self-importance.

Doctors dish out Twitter medicine

Their responses to the NRA were not always polite but expressed the justifiable outrage of those who must deal each day with the horrific aftermath of gun violence.

When conservative commentator Ann Coulter weighed in with typical (for her) disdain toward the doctors, a trauma surgeon and police officer responded:

A serious question for you @AnnCoulter ? I’m a trauma surgeon & a police officer. I’ve been bled on by my patients in the OR at @ParklandTrauma AND by my friends injured in gunfights w/@DallasPD SWAT. You sit in front of a camera & talk. What EXACTLY are you an expert on ma’am? https://t.co/If3woHKSLj — Alexander Eastman (@PMHTrauma_ALE) November 10, 2018

Another responded to the NRA with:

Hey @NRA ! Wanna see my lane? Here’s the chair I sit in when I tell parents their kids are dead. How dare you tell me I can’t research evidence based solutions. #ThisISMyLane #ThisIsOurLane #thequietroom pic.twitter.com/y7tBAuje8O — Stephanie Bonne (@scrubbedin) November 9, 2018

And another, forensic pathologist Dr. Judy Melinek, tweeted to the NRA, “Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isn’t just my lane. It’s my f-ing highway.”

I slightly edited one word in that last comment.

A well-known cure

The frustration expressed by the doctors is understandable.

Firearms violence is a treatable condition. The cure is well-known and readily available, but physicians can’t get enough of our politicians to try it.

It’s called common sense.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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