WATCH: Awaken Dawn, Powerful New Film On How School Massacres Are Becoming Normal

I hope this gets a lot of play between now and the November elections.

Different people tried to tell us. Fred Guttenberg, one of the parents whose child was killed in the Overland shooting, told us years ago how things were. He’s here in this film telling us again. What he and the other parents — and survivors — have to say will never change.

When will we listen? Because if we don’t change right now, this is normal. This is how it will be. We will send our kids to school with the caveat, “And if you live long enough, you can go to college…” And they won’t think that’s odd.

NEW ELEVEN FILMS: #AwakenDawn

No more thoughts and prayers.
Only action will save our kids.

It's time to #AwakenDawn
SOUND UP pic.twitter.com/zoe7sMQxQH

— Eleven Films (@Eleven_Films) June 1, 2022

Here’s a thread wherein the writer shares images from her growing up in an abusive family with guns and how she lost the hearing in one ear due to her insane father discharging a weapon near her.

The sound of his feet seemed so loud until the shot rang out. He was right next to me. So close he could touch me, but he didn't know where I was hiding.

I lost the hearing in my left ear that morning. I'd lost so much more before that, growing up under extreme abuse.

I did not

— Red Lori Bright Eyes, Please Vaccinate For Me (@RedloraineV) June 1, 2022

Wondering if help would come?

I remembering praying, "Please, oh god, let help come."

Which was strange to me. We did not go to church. I found it to be useless in the end. Nothing changed.

When it was time to come out from hiding, I'd stuffed myself in there so long I had to

— Red Lori Bright Eyes, Please Vaccinate For Me (@RedloraineV) June 1, 2022

across the street, speaking w police.

My mother, held a respected position within the superior court, and, as such, new many of the faces in the halls of justice in our town. She was horrified and embarrassed. I could see that much in her face as I ran toward her.

That's when

— Red Lori Bright Eyes, Please Vaccinate For Me (@RedloraineV) June 1, 2022

door, helped him out, uncuffed him and handed him off to her. He seemed smaller then, bent over in his white underwear, bare feet, chaotic hair.

As my parents embraced I knew. I KNEW they were going to let him go. What I DID not expect, was for them to hand him back his gun.

— Red Lori Bright Eyes, Please Vaccinate For Me (@RedloraineV) June 1, 2022

They handed him back his gun.

There are two areas of social relief needed in this country: One, assault rifles need to be outlawed. Maybe the 18-year-old sociopaths will still get their hands on them but at least it will be a little more difficult. Two, and this is even more essential, some form of group parenting needs to be available in this culture. A lot of children don’t get adequate parenting or anything close to it in their biological families. Those kids need some form of support so that they don’t end up always feeling different, like freaks. They’re not freaks. There are way too many of them. I know. I grew up in a crazy family myself.

I’m thinking along the lines of Big Brothers, Big Sisters, which are groups that I’ve heard very good things about. Maybe we could have a group, Normal Kids or Supportive Siblings, something along those lines, where kids could be a part, if only for a short time, of the doings of ordinary, healthy families and escape the trap of the families they were born into.

Maybe if some of the perpetrators of these school shootings, I’m thinking of Ethan Crumbley and this last shooter, Salvadore Ramos, had had a chance to get to know kids their own age, outside of the confines of their family and how they were defined in their schools, maybe they could have found a healthier way to be in the world. Or, maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe some people are so screwed up, so young, that there is no hope. But it would certainly be nice if we had some social mechanisms that could maybe make a difference.