Ann Coulter isn’t known for picking her battles. Whenever the veteran right-wing provocatrice opens her mouth or takes to her Twitter or Facebook, you can take it to the bank that she will make herself look foolish.
Well, over the weekend, Coulter found herself writing a check she couldn’t cover once again. When she saw the National Rifle Association getting pummeled on Twitter for trying to wag its finger at doctors speaking out for gun control, she was swiftly put in her place.
In recent years, some of the fiercest advocates for common-sense reform of our gun laws have been the doctors who all too often find themselves treating victims of gun violence. Well, that didn’t sit too well with the NRA. The so-called civil rights organization threw a Twitter tantrum on the day after its Republican friends lost control of the House.
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
If the NRA believed it could cow doctors in the same way it cows politicians, it had another think coming. A number of doctors took to Twitter to remind the NRA that they have every right to speak up about gun violence–and aren’t about to shut up.
https://twitter.com/DrDenaGrayson/status/1060517967409147911
Hey @NRA want to come do my job for a week? Want to come tell a family their loved one is dead? Want to be up to your elbows in bloods and guts trying to keep someone alive?
No? Then you don't really get to argue that we don't know what we're talking about, now do you? https://t.co/J10ccNUCfK
— Sarab Sodhi (@SarabSodhi) November 8, 2018
Hey @NRA when I was a pediatric resident a four year old came in after his cousin accidentally shot him. It took me a little while to realize that the pink stuff sliding down the gurney's metal frame was his brain. Keeping kids safe is my job. I'll go in whatever lane I want.
— jjaylynny (@jjaylynny) November 8, 2018
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 https://t.co/E8qz3lewK7— Esther Choo MD MPH (@choo_ek) November 8, 2018
As a Trauma Surgeon and survivor of #GunViolence I cannot believe the audacity of the @NRA to make such a divisive statement.
We take care of these patients everyday. Where are you when I’m having to tell all those families their loved one has died. @DocsDemand #Docs4GunSense https://t.co/XrY1G3hIi2
— Joseph Sakran (@JosephSakran) November 7, 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
Self-important psychiatrist here. My folks are the ones most likely to be the victims of gun violence. Go to Med school and residency, treat victims and their families and loved ones, and publish in peer reviewed journals or kindly STFU and stay out of our lane. https://t.co/NbqchY9OEe
— Omar S. Manejwala MD (@drmanejwala) November 9, 2018
In a case of exceptionally bad timing, the NRA’s finger-wagging tweet went live just hours before a man shot and killed 12 people at a nightclub in Thousand Oaks, California. It says a lot about the NRA that this tweet wasn’t taken down.
By the time the week was out, the hashtags “#ItsOurLane” and “#ThisIsOurLane” were heavily trending on Twitter.
I would like to graciously extend the invitation to the author of this tweet and anyone else from the NRA to join me at the hospital the next time I care for a child who has been hurt or killed by a gun that wasn’t safely stored or was an innocent bystander. #ThisIsOurLane https://t.co/vQg3BsjYyJ
— Jeannie Moorjani, MD (@JeanMoorjani) November 8, 2018
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
Good morning! Just a reminder @NRA : #ThisISMyLane #ThisISOurLane . She didn’t make it. pic.twitter.com/LMnev4bylF
— Stephanie Bonne (@scrubbedin) November 10, 2018
Thank you to @NRA for uniting us physicians and surgeons against you. Surely, you remember what happened to the tobacco lobby? You profit off death and are a threat to the wellbeing of our patients, society and our democracy. You just messed with the wrong group. #ThisIsOurLane
— Tanya Zakrison (@tzakrison) November 10, 2018
Several doctors who support gun control even started a Twitter account of their own, “@ThisIsOurLane.”
You would have thought that Coulter would have seen this smackdown playing out in real time and thought better about weighing in. But Ann couldn’t resist. She hit the ceiling when forensic pathologist Judy Melinek laid into 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 fucking highway. https://t.co/48S9UIFaV2
— Judy Melinek M.D. (@drjudymelinek) November 9, 2018
Coulter responded by trying to tell Melinek how to do her job.
Emergency room doctors pull cue balls, vines & gummy bears out of human orifices every week. That doesn't make them experts on pool, horticulture or chewy candy. https://t.co/EdksEGDnCx
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 10, 2018
Emergency room doctor Rick Pescatore wasted little time cutting Coulter down to size.
Hi, Satan! I'm an ER doc. If you add up every gummy bear, cue ball, or copy of your shitty books Ive pulled out of orifices, it doesnt even approach the number of moms Ive had to tell their kids are dead from guns. Stick w/the xenophobia+racism youre so good at and GTFO our lane. https://t.co/HaAH2ZNXhR
— Rick Pescatore, DO (@Rick_Pescatore) November 10, 2018
Cat London, a family doctor who has already thrown her hat in the ring to challenge Susan Collins in the Senate, decided to pile on.
We do examine assholes all day so it does make us an expert on them. You qualify https://t.co/yRQTZnGqQr
— Cathleen London MD (@DrChaya) November 11, 2018
Trauma surgeon and Dallas SWAT team member Alex Eastman wondered whether Coulter really knew what she was talking about.
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
Eastman later told The Dallas Morning News that while he carries a gun on a daily basis, he is “100 percent anti-bullet hole.” To his mind, the NRA’s snappish response proves that it has no place in “the mature, scientific, educated and rational conversation about how to make this country a more safe place to live.” Presumably, he’s of the same mind about Coulter.
But then again, we knew that a long time ago. After all, the NRA is the spokesman for the nation’s gun manufacturers, most of whom are privately owned. So when the NRA wagged its finger at the nation’s doctors, it was doing so on behalf of faceless men who are not accountable to anyone. Perhaps Coulter should have considered that before she got the bright idea to come to the NRA’s defense.
So once again, Coulter opened her mouth, inserted her foot–and paid a stiff price. Word to the wise, Ann. Don’t get in battles that you can’t win.
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