The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
PSA satirizes cultural complacency about shootings
NEWTOWN — A homegrown nonprofit that has become one of the leading gun violence prevention groups in America released a public service announcement Monday that takes aim at cultural complacency over school shootings.
The 90-second PSA, launched by Sandy Hook Promise, uses satire to challenge the idea that people can do little prevent mass shootings.
Its message: Anyone can stop a shooting by recognizing red flags.
Two co-founders of the nonprofit – both parents of children who were slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre — appeared in a taped segment on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Monday to tout the PSA.
“We know that these acts of violence are preventable,” said Sandy Hook Promise co-founder Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was among the 26 firstgraders and educators slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School. “And we feel responsible to teach people how to prevent them from happening.”
The PSA shows a television reporter at the scene of a school shooting the day before “... a 15-year-old will kill four children, two adults, and then turn the gun on himself.” The reporter interviews students, adults and police officers about what they will say the following day when the inevitable happens.
“Someone is expected to tell us after the shooting that the shooter has been posting on social media about doing this for weeks,” a police officer tells the television reporter.
The camera then cuts to the reporter interviewing two of the shooter’s peers.
“After the shooting we are going to feel pretty bad about picking on him, but until then we will probably keep doing it because he’s pretty weird,” says one student.
The PSA, which coincided with the launch of an original song for Sandy Hook Promise by Grammy award-winning artist Sheryl Crow, comes three days before the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre.
The hope for the new PSA is to match or surpass the success of the organization’s 2016 PSA called “Evan,” which has received 150 million views on social media.
That video follows a likable high schooler named Evan whose desire to find his secret admirer is fulfilled just when he had given up hope. But the happy end is smashed when a lone teenager cocks a gun, sending students shrieking.
“While you were watching Evan, another student was showing signs of planning a shooting," the video’s text reads. “But no one noticed.”
The new PSA release comes one day before a gala fundraiser for Sandy Hook Promise in Manhattan.
Among the VIPs at the Tuesday gala are Joseph Biden, the former vice president. Crow plans to sing the benefit song, “The Dreaming Kind.”
Sandy Hook Promise offers free programs to train students, parents and teachers about the signs that people are planning to hurt themselves or others.