| From | Kirsten from No Dem Left Behind <[email protected]> |
| Subject | As I write this, my child is on lockdown in his classroom. |
| Date | December 17, 2021 8:14 PM |
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JohnToday is the last day of school before winter break. My 17-year-old son was supposed to be spending it going to lame classroom parties and taking the last of his final exams. Instead, as I write this, he’s texting me from a locked-down classroom , peering surreptitiously through a crack in the window blinds as a bunch of cops tear apart the campus searching for deadly weapons.
You may have heard about the TikTok “School Shooting Challenge,” which is apparently the spiritual successor to that stupid “Devious Licks” challenge from a few months ago that had kids vandalizing and stealing anything they could pry off the walls of the school restrooms, only much more frightening and disruptive.
The challenge started off as a prank: Call in a bomb threat or a school shooting on the last day before winter break, and get classes canceled. The goal? Early vacation. Kind of the 21 st century digital equivalent of pulling the fire alarm before a test, only with the potential for federal terrorism charges. (Hey, nobody ever claimed these pranksters were smart.)
But as things tend to do on social media, it quickly escalated and warped to the point where the joke became indistinguishable from reality, and suddenly police and school officials were getting credible threats of violence. Now kids, faculty and parents all over the country are on high alert, and some schools are even closed – like in Oxford, Michigan, where they’re still mourning after a school massacre that happened there just a couple of weeks ago – and my kid is on lockdown.
He'll probably be fine. It's probably nothing, just another prank call and an abundance of caution. But what if it's not?
Here’s the thing: Credible or not, the fact that threats like these have to be taken seriously in this country – the fact that they even CAN be taken seriously – is a direct result of our failure to enact even the most minimal common-sense gun control laws.
We KNOW kids have access to guns, the 298 shootings at K-12 schools since Columbine have shown us that over and over again. An analysis by the Washington Post revealed that over 278,000 children have witnessed gun violence at their schools since 1999. Of those, 157 didn’t live to tell the tale, and 351 were injured. The youngest shooter was just 6 years old – he shot and killed a classmate after telling her he didn’t like her. In 85% of cases, the gun used by the shooter belonged to a parent or other family member.
And those are just the school shootings. That doesn’t begin to cover the 3,000+ children who die of gunshots each and every year in this country, making gun violence the leading cause of death for American children ages 1-19.
When will we wake up and realize that easy access to guns is the problem here?
It’s 2021, we have the technology to keep guns out of the hands of children. Trigger locks, childproof safeties, biometric safes – we have solutions available, what we lack is the political will to mandate their use. Likewise, universal background checks, red flag laws and common-sense restrictions on high-rate-of-fire weapons and high-capacity magazines could all go a long way toward reducing the death toll from gun violence, but it’s been almost 23 years since Columbine and 9 years since Sandy Hook, and guns are just as available to kids as ever.
Which brings us to today, and me sitting here writing this letter because I simply don’t know what else to do while I wait on pins and needles for my son to be given the all-clear to drive home. I feel scared, sick and helpless … but I’m not helpless, and neither are you – together we CAN make a difference, and it starts with electing sane leaders who will support reasonable gun control laws.
If you’re with me in this fight to keep our kids safe, please consider a donation to No Dem Left Behind PAC today. We’ll use it to fund and promote strong Democratic candidates who will lead the charge for change in Washington when it comes to gun safety and other important issues.
Either way, I hope you’ll hold your elected leaders and candidates accountable for their action – or lack of action – when it comes to keeping guns out of the hands of children.
Thank you for your support,
Kirsten Heffron
Director of Digital Strategy
No Dem Left Behind PAC
P.S.: Shortly after I finished this letter, my son walked in the door -- unharmed, but in his words, " So over it. "
I agree: Enough is enough! Please join me in suppporting candidates who will keep guns out of the hands of children and eliminate the need for lockdowns and active shooter drills in America's schools.
No Dem Left Behind is a federal PAC focused on building a base of support for progressive values in rural America. We are committed to helping solve the issues that people in rural America face by creating a foundation of trust and helping great local leaders emerge to run for elected office. We provide a national platform for our endorsed Democratic candidates to increase their exposure and help them mount winning campaigns.
Pitch in today to join our Democratic movement and help us flip more seats blue >> [[link removed]]
DONATE [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] NoDemLeftBehind.com [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]] || Twitter [[link removed]]
No Dem Left Behind PAC
PO Box 15320
Washington, DC 20003
United States
Paid for by No Dem Left Behind PAC. Not authorized by any federal candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this email list, please click here. [[link removed]]
JohnToday is the last day of school before winter break. My 17-year-old son was supposed to be spending it going to lame classroom parties and taking the last of his final exams. Instead, as I write this, he’s texting me from a locked-down classroom , peering surreptitiously through a crack in the window blinds as a bunch of cops tear apart the campus searching for deadly weapons.
You may have heard about the TikTok “School Shooting Challenge,” which is apparently the spiritual successor to that stupid “Devious Licks” challenge from a few months ago that had kids vandalizing and stealing anything they could pry off the walls of the school restrooms, only much more frightening and disruptive.
The challenge started off as a prank: Call in a bomb threat or a school shooting on the last day before winter break, and get classes canceled. The goal? Early vacation. Kind of the 21 st century digital equivalent of pulling the fire alarm before a test, only with the potential for federal terrorism charges. (Hey, nobody ever claimed these pranksters were smart.)
But as things tend to do on social media, it quickly escalated and warped to the point where the joke became indistinguishable from reality, and suddenly police and school officials were getting credible threats of violence. Now kids, faculty and parents all over the country are on high alert, and some schools are even closed – like in Oxford, Michigan, where they’re still mourning after a school massacre that happened there just a couple of weeks ago – and my kid is on lockdown.
He'll probably be fine. It's probably nothing, just another prank call and an abundance of caution. But what if it's not?
Here’s the thing: Credible or not, the fact that threats like these have to be taken seriously in this country – the fact that they even CAN be taken seriously – is a direct result of our failure to enact even the most minimal common-sense gun control laws.
We KNOW kids have access to guns, the 298 shootings at K-12 schools since Columbine have shown us that over and over again. An analysis by the Washington Post revealed that over 278,000 children have witnessed gun violence at their schools since 1999. Of those, 157 didn’t live to tell the tale, and 351 were injured. The youngest shooter was just 6 years old – he shot and killed a classmate after telling her he didn’t like her. In 85% of cases, the gun used by the shooter belonged to a parent or other family member.
And those are just the school shootings. That doesn’t begin to cover the 3,000+ children who die of gunshots each and every year in this country, making gun violence the leading cause of death for American children ages 1-19.
When will we wake up and realize that easy access to guns is the problem here?
It’s 2021, we have the technology to keep guns out of the hands of children. Trigger locks, childproof safeties, biometric safes – we have solutions available, what we lack is the political will to mandate their use. Likewise, universal background checks, red flag laws and common-sense restrictions on high-rate-of-fire weapons and high-capacity magazines could all go a long way toward reducing the death toll from gun violence, but it’s been almost 23 years since Columbine and 9 years since Sandy Hook, and guns are just as available to kids as ever.
Which brings us to today, and me sitting here writing this letter because I simply don’t know what else to do while I wait on pins and needles for my son to be given the all-clear to drive home. I feel scared, sick and helpless … but I’m not helpless, and neither are you – together we CAN make a difference, and it starts with electing sane leaders who will support reasonable gun control laws.
If you’re with me in this fight to keep our kids safe, please consider a donation to No Dem Left Behind PAC today. We’ll use it to fund and promote strong Democratic candidates who will lead the charge for change in Washington when it comes to gun safety and other important issues.
Either way, I hope you’ll hold your elected leaders and candidates accountable for their action – or lack of action – when it comes to keeping guns out of the hands of children.
Thank you for your support,
Kirsten Heffron
Director of Digital Strategy
No Dem Left Behind PAC
P.S.: Shortly after I finished this letter, my son walked in the door -- unharmed, but in his words, " So over it. "
I agree: Enough is enough! Please join me in suppporting candidates who will keep guns out of the hands of children and eliminate the need for lockdowns and active shooter drills in America's schools.
No Dem Left Behind is a federal PAC focused on building a base of support for progressive values in rural America. We are committed to helping solve the issues that people in rural America face by creating a foundation of trust and helping great local leaders emerge to run for elected office. We provide a national platform for our endorsed Democratic candidates to increase their exposure and help them mount winning campaigns.
Pitch in today to join our Democratic movement and help us flip more seats blue >> [[link removed]]
DONATE [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] NoDemLeftBehind.com [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]] || Twitter [[link removed]]
No Dem Left Behind PAC
PO Box 15320
Washington, DC 20003
United States
Paid for by No Dem Left Behind PAC. Not authorized by any federal candidate or candidate's committee.
This email was sent to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this email list, please click here. [[link removed]]
Message Analysis
- Sender: No Dem Left Behind PAC
- Political Party: Democratic
- Country: United States
- State/Locality: n/a
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