March For Our Lives has released a new video PSA, “Generation Lockdown,” directed by Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man for McCann New York.
The PSA features a young girl, Kayleigh, instructing adults on how they would survive an active shooter event. The spot offers a moving look at what students deal with and how schools have had to respond to the very real threat of gun violence. It is estimated that 95% of school kids–some as young as five–are now trained on what to do during an active shooter situation because they have to be prepared for it at any minute, in any community. The PSA ends with a call for viewers to support federal legislation to put universal background checks in place for the purchase of firearms.
Following the 20 year anniversary of the Columbine High School Shooting, the video offers a stark reminder of the dangerous environment today’s students face in schools across the country.
Since March 2018, March For Our Lives students from all across the United States have called for common-sense reforms that will save the lives of more than 3,000 young people each year, including: implementing universal, comprehensive background checks; creating a searchable database for gun owners; investing in violence intervention programs, specifically in disenfranchised communities; funding the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence so that reform policies are backed up by data; and banning high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles.