Inside of most student backpacks, they have pens, notebooks, pencils, folders, a Chromebook and it’s all used for educational purposes, right? When students stumble upon a video entitled “Back-to-School Essentials”, it depicted these supplies as weapons to combat an active school shooter.

Released on September 19th, the video opens with kids eagerly showing off their new school supplies. It takes a dark turn when the scene pans to a boy acknowledging his new sneakers and running, not for gym class, but from an active shooter. The ad is meant to reflect the near 200,000 students who have been affected by a school shooter since Columbine. The organization? They are called the Sandy Hook Promise: an anti-violence, non profit organization founded by the parents of the victims in the Sandy Hook Shooting of 2012.

This is not the first video that the organization has created. In 2016, they produced a video called “Evan.” It shed light on the importance of knowing the warning signs of a possible school shooter. The earlier production initially focuses on two high school teens who have been writing to each other on a table at the library. At the end of the school year, they discover each other’s identity while signing yearbooks. Shortly after that, a shadow of a person appears, unexpectedly, in the doorway and cocks a gun. The video then flashes back to highlight all the warning signs people missed. Sandy Hook Promise’s new video uses much more jarring shots as a call-to-action for new gun reform laws. It has kids showing how their new school supplies are able to protect them in an active school shooter situation, as opposed to their older video, which is more accusatory in nature. Even though both of the videos possess varying tones, they spread the same message. These PSAs are intended to bring awareness and urgency to both the matter and their organization.

Sandy Hook Promise’s main message is to create a united front to protect kids and prevent more school shootings. They are also pushing legislative reform in hopes of averting a future crisis. First, they have the “Model School Safety Policy.” It requires schools to implement programs that have been proven to prevent multiple school shootings and provides them with inclusion training. Second, the “Extreme Risk Protection Orders” is a way to keep firearms out of people’s hands who potentially pose a threat. This allows either family members or law enforcement officials to petition a court to temporarily separate at-risk individuals from firearms. If the person poses a significant danger to any individual, the judge will order that the firearms be temporarily placed in safe storage until the person receives the help they need. Sandy Hook Promise also wants more extensive background checks to be implemented because studies show this results in a significant reduction in gun violence. According to everytown.org, “States that require background checks on all handgun sales experienced 63 percent fewer mass shootings committed by people prohibited from possessing firearms.” This organization is not calling to repeal the second amendment, rather, they want to address the human side to gun violence.

Being a student in the public education system, many have probably played the “what if” game when it comes to school safety. The videos created by this organization, though they’re unsettling in nature, remind me that there are people fighting for our safety in schools. Even though the possibility of an incident is slim, these videos serve as a reminder to both be kind to and look out for one another.