Filmmaker Anthony Wilson helms a stirring public service announcement to accompany the latest in a series of Commonsense Solution toolkits from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Americans for Responsible Solutions.
The installment, Commonsense Solutions: State Gun Laws to Protect Kids from Unintended Shootings, addresses the urgent need to keep children safe from firearms in the home.
Wilson decided to make this spot as a means to share our collective cause as mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. Forgoing monetary pay, he asked us to embrace the opportunity to bring a new perspective to the dialogue on gun control in the US: creating a powerful narrative that visually underscores the critical need for smart gun laws focused on kids and firearms.
The PSA was produced by Patrick Malloy with Executive Producer Rania Hattar and can be viewed below.
Through the metaphorical use of a young boy, the symbol of our young country, and the backdrop of classic Americana; Wilson asks us to follow him as he seeks to understand what this object’s purpose is. In the end, reality shows the young boy, our young country, what the sole purpose of a gun is. It is an instrument of death; and we should hold that notion close to us when we decide who should wield this power and how.
Too many families have needlessly suffered the devastation of a child lost to a poorly stored gun. Almost 1.7 million children under the age of 18 live in homes with loaded, unlocked firearms, making them 16 times more likely to be killed in unintentional shootings than in other high-income countries. Commonsense requirements for gun storage and handling can protect the littlest among us from preventable tragedies.
The toolkit is a comprehensive legal resource for state legislators and activists that offers detailed proposals for smart gun laws and in-home best practices to keep kids from accessing firearms. Recommendations include secure locking methods, warning labels, and child access prevention laws, which hold adults liable when children gain access to deadly weapons.
The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has made addressing the deadly intersection of kids and guns one of its top policy priorities in 2015. The Law Center’s 22nd Anniversary Dinner held on June 18 in San Francisco, focused on smart gun laws that protect children, and honored Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer for founding the organization Prosecutors Against Gun Violence and all their efforts to reduce gun violence against children. The dinner also honored Mark Barden, who lost his son in the shooting at Sandy Hook and now serves as advocacy director for Sandy Hook Promise.
To read more about the ways advocates and lawmakers can help protect our kids from gunfire, and to view the PSA visit www.smartgunlaws.org.
About the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Founded in the wake of the July 1, 1993, assault weapon massacre at 101 California Street in San Francisco that left eight dead and six wounded, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence is now the premier resource for legal expertise and information regarding state and federal firearms laws. We track and analyze gun laws in all 50 states, file amicus briefs in Second Amendment cases across the country, and work with lawmakers and advocates to craft and promote legislation that will reduce gun violence and save lives. We regularly partner with other nonprofit organizations dedicated to combating the epidemic of gun violence in our country, and we invite you to explore our website, smartgunlaws.org, to learn more about our work.
About Director Anthony Wilson
Before Director Anthony Wilson created his award-winning spot "Mistake" for the National Domestic Violence Hotline; he always sought to keep the scales in balance. Continuing that goal, Anthony donated his time and creative to helm a PSA about an issue significant to our country: Gun Violence. The hard-hitting piece challenges us to not only reexamine America’s romanticized viewpoint on guns and the role they play in our society; it also confronts us with the opportunity to alter the current discourse of our collective debate about the place the guns hold in the conscience of our country.
