Joseph Sakran

Joseph V. Sakran is an American trauma surgeon and gun control activist. A graduate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Medical School for International Health, he also holds degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School, Johns Hopkins University, and George Mason University.

Sakran attended high school in Fairfax, Virginia. As a high school senior, at a local playground after attending a football game, he was struck in the neck from a stray bullet fired into a crowd. With his carotid artery severed, he was saved by trauma surgeons operating at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Dedicating himself to become a surgeon while still in recovery, he applied to George Mason University and gained experience as a medic and firefighter in Fairfax. After graduating from medical school, he later completed his surgery residency Inova Fairfax.

In 2014, Sakran was awarded the Surgical Resident Volunteerism Award as recognition for long-term interventions aimed at reducing the global burden of surgical disease, participating in numerous international disaster relief efforts, and compiling an abundance of medical supplies for communities of low- and middle-income countries. In 2016, Sakran's activism first achieved national recognition when he founded "Doctors for Hillary," supporting the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, who had made gun control a central tenet of her campaign. In 2018, Sakran established the Twitter account @ThisIsOurLane in response to the National Rifle Association's comment for Physicians to "Stay in their lane" on gun policy.