Wednesday, September 18, 2019
"When kids go back to
school, they have plenty to worry about. They shouldn't also have to wonder if
they're going to make it home."
A new PSA released Wednesday
by the non-profit group Sandy Hook Promise showcases the reality children face
as they head back to school—one marked not only by back-to-school shopping but
by active shooter drills and fears that their school could be the next target
of a mass shooting.
Formed in the wake of the 2012
shooting that killed 20 young children and seven adults in Newtown,
Connecticut, Sandy Hook Promise aims to prevent gun
deaths by lobbying for gun control measures like universal background
checks and red flag laws.
The group also delivers
programs to schools and communities to prevent gun violence and educate the
public on identifying warning signs of a potential shooting.
As part of its "Know the
Signs" campaign, Sandy Hook Promise released a video—along with a warning
about its graphic content—featuring schoolchildren showing off their new school
supplies and then using scissors, pencils, and other classroom items to protect
themselves from a shooter who's entered their school.
Watch:
In the video, children are
seen using a jacket to tie a gymnasium door shut as others scream and run from
the shooter in the background, holding up scissors in self-defense as the
perpetrator lurks in a hallway outside a classroom, and finally using a cell
phone to text, "I love you, Mom," while hiding in a bathroom stall as
the shooter is heard entering the room.
"This PSA is a gut punch,
it's uncomfortable, it's hard to watch, but you can't sanitize a school
shooting," Mark Barden, a co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise who lost his
son in the Newtown shooting. "My hope is that folks will see this and be
inspired to take action."
The video was met with shock
and praise from gun control advocates who are demanding that Congress take
action to stop the epidemic of gun violence in the United States.
There have already been
nearly 300 mass shootings in 2019, according
to the Gun Violence Archive. In the first four months of the
year, at
least eight shootings took place at schools.
The Department of
Education reports that
about 96 percent of American public schools now hold active shooter drills in
preparation for a potential shooting on campus.
Sandy Hook Promise released its
video a week after Congress reconvened after a six-week recess. Senators
returned to Washington with a universal background checks bill still waiting to
be brought to the floor for debate by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.), seven months after the Democratic-led House passed the legislation.
McConnell said Tuesday
that Congress is in "a holding pattern," waiting for President Donald
Trump to signal that he will sign the bill if it's passed by the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D-N.Y.) told the Associated Press Wednesday, "This is
the moment for the president to do something different and courageous."
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