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Social media has proven to be an invaluable tool as the nation grapples with an ever more contentious gun control debate. The reality, whether we like it or not, is that human lives are on the line while American legislators continue to vote against the comprehensive gun reform the public wants while appeasing the NRA and members of the gun lobby.
The latest social media post to go viral is from a mother who shared the emotional message her daughter wrote on her arm during a school lockdown.
Shelley Harrison Reed is the mother of Vanessa, an elementary school student whose school went into lockdown earlier this week due to a bomb threat. Local authorities came and investigated.
"Everything was fine, Thank God!" Reed wrote.
It was later during the day when Vanessa was changing out of her school uniform that Reed noticed the message on her daughter's arm.
Vanessa had written "Love mom and dad" on her arm in purple marker:
I say to her, why did you write that on your arm?
She says, in case the bad guy got to us and I got killed, you and daddy would know that I love you, and she started to cry (as did I as I watched a little piece of her innocence get stolen away)To know that my 7yo was put in a position to think that thought is absolutely gut wrenching and it's killing me inside.
It's now been a couple hours, and I can't seem to shake this awful feeling, feeling of sadness, fear, and plain disgusts for this new 'normal' our kids have to deal with on any given day.....it's a very scary and disturbing society we now live in, and it's heartbreaking.
Reed's post sent a chill through the hearts of other parents who lamented our current reality:
The post soon went viral, garnering the attention of people like gun control advocate Berkowitz...
...as well as Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, who has championed gun reform legislation as one of the faces of the March for Our Lives campaign.
"I refuse to let this be the America that any other generation has to grow up in," he wrote.
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting. Reed's post went viral just as Democrats prepare to reintroduce a bill to ban high-capacity gun magazines.
The legislation is cosponsored by Representative Ted Deutch of Florida and Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. The legislation, dubbed the "Keep Americans Safe Act," would ban any magazine that exceeds 10 rounds of ammunition.
"Guns become doubly and triply deadly in these massacres because of these high-capacity magazines," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). "And so if we take one simple step in approving this prohibition, we can literally save lives. There is no more simple, straightforward way to save lives from gun violence than to ban these high-capacity magazines."