• by Tanya Gazdik , May 27, 2021

A PSA created by Ogilvy for Change The Ref highlights one upside of the pandemic: There were far fewer school shootings. 

In 2020, there were 10 school shootings compared to 25 in 2019 and 24 in 2018. According to Education Week, there have been 62 school shootings since 2018. And according to CBS News, March 2020 was the first month without a school shooting since March 2002.

The spot, “Bring Back Lockdown,” features Parkland student liana Waitze Zuckerman both as the voiceover and onscreen at the end of the one-minute and 18-seconds spot. 

“Let’s bring back lockdown, for another year, or 10, until it’s really safe to be together, until being in a crowd is no risk, until we can fill schools without fear,” she says in the voiceover.

The effort encourages viewers to visit BringBackLockdown.com where they can petition their local congressperson to push legislation and stricter gun control measures.

It’s shocking to think that it took a global pandemic to reduce America’s school violence epidemic, but it’s important for people to realize that one problem (COVID-19 pandemic) can’t be the only way to solve another problem (school shootings), says Change the Ref founder Manuel Oliver.

“Gun laws and regulations continue to fall short of securing the safety of our schools,” Oliver says in a release. “The Bring Back Lockdown campaign is an important moment to push the gun control conversation back into the forefront and incite change."

More guns have been purchased since the onset of COVID than ever before, which means there are more guns in homes, and therefore a higher likelihood of gun violence in schools when kids return, Manuel says.