A new ad from gun violence prevention organization March for Our Lives left many on the internet teary-eyed because of its bracing depiction of the impact America's mass shooting epidemic has on schoolchildren.
The ad shows a corporate active-shooter training session being conducted in an office.
To the attendees'—and the viewer's—shock, the expert on active-shooter safety called in to lead the training turns out to be a school-age girl.
The young girl then delivers instructions on how to handle an active shooting with a matter-of-factness while images of children hiding from gunmen flash on the screen.
See the ad below.
The ad, titled "Generation Lockdown," was created long before the Uvalde, Texas school shooting.
On May 24, an 18-year-old gunman with a legally purchased AR-15 murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. That tragedy has once again galvanized activists on both sides of the gun control issue, giving the ad a new urgency.
The glimpse it gives into what United States children are learning in school about gun violence is unsettling.
Kayleigh, the young girl giving instructions, discusses playing games to see who can "stay quietest the longest" because speaking out loud or crying during an active shooter situation can alert the gunman to victims' locations.
She also tells the adults to push tables and chairs in front of doors and cover windows with dark paper and if they are in the bathroom they must stand on the toilet seat and crouch down so that the gunman can't see their feet under the stall.
Kayleigh also sings a song—learned at school—to help her remember what to do during an active-shooter scenario.
It goes:
"Lockdown, lockdown, let’s all hide. Lock the doors and stay inside. Crouch on down. Don’t make a sound. And don’t cry or you’ll be found."
The ad was created by March for Our Lives to bring attention to a bill in the U.S. Senate that would expand background checks for gun purchases. The legislation was introduced by Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy in 2019.
On Twitter, many were undone by the disturbing reality the ad reveals.
March for Our Lives was created by students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in the wake of the 2018 shooting there, which—until the Uvalde school shooting last month—was the second deadliest school shooting in United States history.
