I know I spend a lot of time talking about topics that make me stop and ponder, but this Henry Hype’s subject is a little different because what I’m going to talk about stopped me cold.
The Sandy Hook Promise, a group formed after the deaths of 20 first graders and six adults in a school shooting in Sandy Hook, United States, released a back-to-school commercial that was chilling.
The video began in familiar fashion: kids are excitedly telling the viewer about the new pencils, notebooks, and binders they bought to get ready for the new school year.
About halfway through, it takes a dark turn as a shooting unfolds and the students are forced to run for their lives. The subjects are forced to use their school supplies to help each other, such as one girl using a knee-high sock to stop the bleeding of another student who’s been injured, and a boy who uses his new skateboard to break a window so he and his classmates can climb out.
While all of these examples are terrible, the one that brought me close to tears was the last image of a girl hiding in a bathroom stall using her new cellphone to text her parents, ‘I love you, mom.’
For me, the video got the exact reaction the Sandy Hook Promise was hoping for when they released it. It made me incredibly uncomfortable, and got me angry thinking about this happening so frequently.
According to the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, a United States military university, 2018 had the most school shootings at 93 compared to the previous peak year in 2006 with 59. It’s disheartening every time a news bulletin pops up saying an incident occurred at a school, or anywhere that included a shooter harming people for whatever reason.
I don’t know what could change the gun violence seen in the United States, but something has to be done. If it’s increased measures to prevent the wrong people from getting firearms, or more education for those using them, what they’re doing now isn’t enough.
Before I go any further, I’m going to clarify something that always comes up when this subject is discussed: I’m not saying anyone should have their guns taken away.
If you’re a responsible gun owner who knows the proper ways to use and store your weapons, and have gone through the proper channels and certifications, then you should keep doing what you’re doing. That’s not where my issue lies.
My problem is when someone who wants to harm as many people as possible gets a gun illegally and opens fire on innocent people.
I don’t want to learn about more children dying because someone slipped through the cracks.
