NEWTOWN -- With the sixth anniversary of Sandy Hook coming Friday, Sandy Hook Promise has released a new PSA aimed at bringing awareness to the warning signs of a shooting, prior to it happening.
Nicole Hockley, Co-Founder of Sandy Hook Promise was pleased with how the PSA came out, “The director and the production team did an amazing job and I think it got that got punch that you wanted at the end and which we’ve become kind of known for at Sandy Hook promise with our PSA‘s, to really make people stop and think.”
A unique approach that, with each passing mass shooting, becomes more and more obvious as a solution. Hockley wants to get help to shooters before they commit to violence, “Sandy Hook promise’s mission is to prevent violence, gun violence before it happens by teaching people how to recognize signs and signals of at risk individuals. Because we know that mass shooters, school shooters, people who completes suicide by firearm, they quite often give off signs and signals. So there is a lot of opportunity for intervention, we just haven’t all been trained on what to look for and then what to do.”
At a time in our history where mass shootings have become expected, the training offered by Sandy Hook Promise is something everyone should consider. Hockley believes everyone would benefit. “So, everyone can learn how to recognize signs and signals. You can be students, it can be teachers and administrators or can be parents. We focus most of our training in middle and high school because that’s when some of these at-risk behaviors start to manifest.”
When somebody recognizes the signs or signals of at risk behavior, it’s imperative that law enforcement follow through. Hockley told FOX61 News that police are also trained, “As a part of our say something anonymous reporting system, local law-enforcement, or fusion centers, district police they are also trained in how to use the anonymous tip line and work with our crisis center in the school team so that the tips are fully managed.”
Sandy Hook Promise avoids the politics and offers a real prevention measure. “Preventing violence and preventing gun violence in particular is really a complex problem. And a lot of people focus on one or two different solutions. We like to focus on how we can stop violence before it happens and what you do in those days weeks months or even years before someone picks up a weapon to hurt someone else. We know it works.”
Sandy Hook Promise has many obvious goals and they have delivered solutions, but according to Hockley, there is still much work to do. “I would love to see teaching violence prevention and how to recognize signs, mandated. We are in about 10,000 schools at the moment but there are a lot more schools that we need to hit.”
Many mass shooters have exhibited signs or signals of issues before they have killed. And every time there is a mass shooting, there’s always a careful examination on what could have been done to recognized and prevent it. This training, offered by Sandy Hook Promise, gets out in front of the issue, before a trigger is ever pulled.