NRA: 'Anti-Gun' Doctors Should 'Stay in Their Lane'

The NRA apparently doesn't like doctors weighing in on gun violence and gun control. On Wednesday—just hours before news of the Thousand Oaks, Calif., broke—the gun lobby nonprofit voiced its displeasure with the medical community's assessments via a reprimanding tweet, reports USA Today. "Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane," the rifle association posted, linking to an article by the group's lobbying arm titled: "Surprise: Physician Group Rehashes Same Tired Gun Control Polices." The NRA tweet continued: "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."

CNN reports the article that seems to have set the NRA off was one published by the American College of Physicians last month that noted "the medical profession has a special responsibility to speak out on prevention of firearm-related injuries and deaths, just as physicians have spoken out on other public health issues." Many doctors, who say they most certainly can speak as experts on gun violence as a public health issue, were not having it. "Not only is this OUR lane, YOU ARE IN IT," one pediatric ICU doctor responded. Another physician explained what his "lane" was by quoting the Hippocratic oath: "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure." As for staying in its lane, the Annals of Internal Medicine tweeted "we wish we could" and shared firearm-themed resources. (Gun violence as seen through the eyes of trauma surgeons.)