US public service announcement calls on kids to steal their parents' guns and hand them over at school
|
Version 0 of 1. A Public Service Announcement (PSA) video is aiming to reduce gun violence in schools and communities in the US by encouraging children to find their parents' guns, steal them and hand them over to their teachers. The video, which was posted online last week by Sleeper 13 Productions, shows a teenage boy wondering through his house and entering his mother's bedroom. He opens a drawer and finds a handgun hidden under some clothes. He then returns to his bedroom and places the weapon in his rucksack. The video then cuts to the young boy at his high school. He is seen working in his classroom and at the end of the lesson, when the room has emptied, he goes up to his teacher and pulls out the gun. His teacher is momentarily afraid, but he places the weapon on the table and says, "Can you take this away? I don't feel safe with a gun in my house." The video then shows the phrases, "Our children deserve a safe world" and "Stop gun violence now". The video was written and produced by Rejina Sincic. She and her production company have faced crticism from some online for calling on children to commit a number of felonies in order to reduce gun violence. Critics argue that if the story were real, the boy would be guilty of weapons theft as well as illegally concealing a gun and carrying it onto school property. @QueenSincic So you're encouraging teens to steal weapons and then turn them in at school, & become double felons. Are you F****** Stupid @QueenSincic You're encouraging a minimum of four felonies, and the significant risk of a negligent discharge hurting or killing someone. Others however were more supportive of the video's message and its desire to stem America's notorious history with gun violence: @QueenSincic @MomsDemand Let's start by taking @NRA advice like Newtown and arm personnel in schools and Stop Criminalsafezones! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 32,351 people died due to gunfire in the US in 2011. According to Bloomberg, at the current rate, shooting deaths in 2015 will most likely exceed traffic fatalities. The CNN Guns Project studied one day from 2014 - July 12 - and found that there were 83 incidents of gun violence in the US, leaving at least 35 people dead and 74 injured. Following the shooting of 20 children and six staff members by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced the Assault Weapons Ban bill to halt such incidents from occurring again. However, the bill was defeated in the US Senate. |