Make your voice heard: Join ACP and the physician movement #ThisIsOurLane
The hashtag #ThisIsOurLane is being used to tag tweets where physicians call attention to the impact of firearm violence on their patients.
ACP's updated position paper on reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths in the U.S., recently published in Annals of Internal Medicine, has received major national attention and sparked the physician movement #ThisIsOurLane on social media.
On Nov. 7, the National Rifle Association (NRA) tweeted a link to an article on its website opposing ACP's recently updated policy on firearm safety, saying, “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” ACP and Annals immediately responded directly to the NRA's tweet, asserting that advocacy to reduce injuries and deaths from firearms, like any other public health risk, is precisely in physicians' lane.
Reaction on Twitter has been swift and overwhelmingly in support of ACP's policy, with ACP members and other physicians declaring, “This IS my lane.” The hashtag #ThisIsOurLane is being used to tag tweets where physicians call attention to the impact of firearm violence on their patients. Since the NRA's tweet, nearly 1,000 new physicians have signed a pledge on the Annals of Internal Medicine website, formally committing to talking to their patients about guns whenever risk factors are present. And an editorial published today in Annals of Internal Medicine declares that “These responsibilities are not only in doctors' lane, they are our job. Consequently, so is advocating for policies that reduce firearm injury and conducting research to better inform policies to keep our patients safer.”
Join the conversation and continue to help raise visibility around this issue. Encourage your physician colleagues to do the same on social media using #ThisIsOurLane, and tag @ACPinternists and @AnnalsofIM.