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Education & Information

Watch Sandy Hook Promise's 'school essentials' PSA, but prepare to be gutted by it

This is not normal.

Watch Sandy Hook Promise's 'school essentials' PSA, but prepare to be gutted by it
Sandy Hook Promise/Facebook

Someday, future Americans will look back on this era of school shootings in bafflement and disbelief—not only over the fact that it happened, but over how long it took us to enact significant legislation to try to stop it.

Five people die from vaping, and the government talks about banning vaping devices. Hundreds of American children have been shot to death in their classrooms, sometimes a dozen or so at a time, and the government has done practically nothing. It's unconscionable.

Death tolls aren't the only meaningful measure when it comes to school shootings. What about all of the kids who were shot but not killed? What about the trauma of the kids who witnessed their classmates, teachers, and friends get murdered in front of them? What about the kids who have had to hide in closets, under desks, behind barricade doors, listening to the carnage outside of their classrooms?

RELATED: Those killed aren't the only victims of school shootings. Read this survivor's story.

According to a report in the Washington Post, 228,000 children have experienced gun violence in school since Columbine. And the rest of America's children regularly drill for it—a reality that people in other countries rightfully see as insanity.

Some of that insane reality has been highlighted in a new PSA from Sandy Hook Promise, an organization that focuses on identifying early warning signs of potential school shooters.

In the video, students share how excited they are about some of their back-to-school "essentials," which quickly morphs into how those items might help them survive a school shooting.

Warning: The PSA includes imagery related to school shootings that is disturbing. That's the point, but be warned.

I something wonder if we've become too numb to school shootings, and then something like this comes along and leaves me shaken. Literally, physically shaken. I will never get used to this. This should never feel normal, because it's not. It is not normal for our children to rehearse mass murder in their classrooms. No other developed nation that is not at war subjects its children to active shooter drills. No other nation's children live in fear that someone with a gun might walk into their classroom at any moment and shoot them. That. Is. Not. Normal.

RELATED: A school custodian's description of 'Stop the Bleed' training shows where gun culture has led us

The United States is supposed to be a beacon of light and freedom. We are supposed to exemplify greatness. This is not greatness. This is not freedom. This is insanity. The question is when are we going to grow sick enough of it to demand that lawmakers do what needs to be done.

[Parents: We don't have to sit idly by and wait for the winds of change to blow. To join the fight for our children's freedom, check out ways to act from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.]


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