@NRA: This isn't just my lane. #It's my ******* highway, signed MD response

NPR: After NRA Mocks Doctors, Physicians Reply: 'This Is Our Lane'

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"Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isn't just my lane. It's my ******* highway," wrote forensic pathologist Judy Melinek, in a tweet that has gone viral.

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Ester Choo, MD, MPH We are not self-important: we are important to the care of others We are not anti-gun: we are anti-bullet holes in our patients We consult with everyone but extremists Most upsetting, actually, is death and disability from gun violence that is unparalleled in the world

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A trauma surgeon in Utah tweeted a photo of his blue scrubs covered in blood. "Can't post a patient photo," he wrote, "so this is a selfie. This is what it looks like to #stayinmylane."

[Image: blood soaked scrubs]

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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

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Good morning! Just a reminder @NRA : #ThisISMyLane #ThisISOurLane . She didn’t make it.

[Image: blood soaked floor]

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For years, the NRA has lobbied to prevent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting research on gun violence. A spending bill passed in March of this year notes that the CDC has the authority to do research on the "causes" of gun violence. But it doesn't change the 1996 law that mandates "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control." The rule has had a chilling effect on gun research in the U.S. ever since. Which makes the NRA's criticism about physicians not having adequate research particularly frustrating to doctors like Melinek. "We aren't against the second amendment," she told The Guardian. "What we are against is not researching, not putting effort into researching, and not putting the funding into researching what can be used to prevent gun violence and death, whether it's trigger locks, security, training or the idea of requiring insurance and having people have insurance in case their gun is used to kill someone else. We need to have the research and we need to have the data to back it up, and right now that's not happening." "We need to do something, and telling doctors to say in their own lane is not the way to do it," she told the newspaper. "We're the ones who have to deal with the consequences. We're the ones who have to testify in court about the wounds. We're the ones who have to talk to the family members. It breaks my heart, and it's just another day in America."

The NRA should think twice about attacking a profession filled with highly educated people. Maybe they'll learn something from this experience. Better yet, maybe the public and the legislators blocking gun safety research will.

There should not be a pro-NRA skeptic in this forum that is against allowing the NIH and CDC to research evidence based solutions to gun violence.