While the locations, faces and the numbers change, the weapon remains the same – a gun. With the recent mass shooting at a South California bar which left 12 dead, the debate over gun control has once again come to the fore.
Mass shootings in USA
While mass shootings have become the norm in the United States Of America, the number of victims in absolute terms is harrowing. While little study has been done to quantify the overall damages of mass-shootings in the US, CNN, by using their own criteria for listing such shootings has found out that there have been 288 school shootings in the USA since 2009 where at least one person was killed. This number is 57 times higher than six other G7 countries in the world, combined. Even as mass shootings in the US get deadlier, the number of victims still represent a small fraction of those who are killed as a result of firearm assault as BBC reported that in 2016 alone, a staggering 11,000 people have died as a result of manslaughter involving a firearm.
More conventionally, mass shootings since 2013 have been defined as cases of attacks involving three or more victims. Going by this, the number of mass shootings may appear fewer, however, the problem – threat involving firearms – continue to persist unabated.
While gun control activists and politicians have been advocating stricter gun laws for the country, at the federal level, the situation is dismal. Meanwhile, the NRA (National Rifle Association of America), an organisation which works for gun rights has been challenging the gun control activists on various grounds, mainly on its advocacy of the 2nd Amendment which is enshrined in the constitution. It says, “a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”.
NRA, which has been vilified for its staunch lobbying of gun rights has once again come under the radar for a controversial tweet which prompted doctors and trauma surgeons in the USA to tweet with #ThisIsOurLane.
NRA tweets and doctors respond
Just a day before the mass shooting at a Thousand Oaks bar in southern California, USA’s powerful pro-gun organisation, NRA tweeted an editorial saying, “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.”
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
“Everyone has hobbies. Some doctors’ collective hobby is opining on firearms policy,” reads the first sentence of the editorial which suggests that anti-gun rights doctors should not debate on gun rights. This tweet caught the attention of many doctors who deal with the horrors of gun-violence, first hand on a routine basis. Doctors’ response to NRA’s tweet was prompt and personal.
With heart-wrenching stories, doctors also posted pictures of blood splattered clothes and trauma centres.
.@NRA says docs should “stay in [our] lane.
My lane is a pregnant woman shot in a moment of rage by her partner. She survived because the baby stopped the bullet. Have you ever had to deliver a shattered baby? #ThisisMyLane . What’s yours? #Docs4GunSense
— Stephanie Bonne (@scrubbedin) November 9, 2018
Can’t post a patient photo…. so this is a selfie.
This is what it looks like to #stayinmylane. @NRA @JosephSakran pic.twitter.com/bVPtXH9oXn
— Dave Morris (@traumadmo) November 10, 2018
Doctor Morris told BBC, “We are anti-violence. Violence is the real problem; guns are simply a vector. What we hope for is the opportunity to study the problem and apply the sound scientific methodology to making things better.”
You have never had to wipe the blood off your shoes before you tell the mother of a 17 yo boy that she will never hug her son again. THAT is my lane. Come to work with me for one day and see the impact gun violence has on our country. #ThisIsOurLane #BAFERDS #StopGunViolence https://t.co/Ecr2PQWWj2
— Ellie Wallace MD (@EMDocEllie) November 9, 2018
There were hundreds of other tweets which showed how real the threat and the subsequent trauma is. The USA is the world’s topmost gun-owning country and only next to it is Yemen, a nation which is torn by civil wars.
NRA, most powerful
Reportedly, US public opinion on banning handguns has changed drastically over the last half a century and now, a significant majority opposes banning handguns. What facilitates such a change is NRA’s lobbying. According to a BBC article, the NRA spends about $3 million (Rs 21,77,85,000) per year to influence gun policy in the country.
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