'My Last Shot' Campaign Hopes Photos May Curb Gun Violence
LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - As the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shootings approaches on April 20, students have launched a new campaign to try to curb gun violence. It's called "My Last Shot" and involves publicizing pictures of people who die from gun violence.
Images that appear in the media from mass shootings help tell the story of a tragedy, but now there's a call to show the vivid close ups.
"If one person's death in those images can change the country then it's for the better," said Columbine High School student Kaylee Tyner.
For example, they cite the open casket of Emmett Till for the civil rights movement, the stirring female napalm victim running down a road in the Vietnam war, and the body of the 3-year-old Syrian refugee.
A video for the "My Last Shot" campaign puts it this way, "Sometimes it takes the worst of humanity to bring out the best."
They want people to put stickers on their drivers licenses or other cards. The stickers read, "In the event of our deaths from gun violence we want images of our deaths to be publicized."
"A lot of people don't understand what a gun shot can do to your body. It can wreck you, it can destroy your features make you almost unrecognizable," Columbine student Ana Lenus-Paiz told CBS4's Rick Sallinger.
Tyner acknowledge some will be put off by "My Last Shot."
"If you are upset with the concept of 'My Last Shot' then you need to be upset with gun violence in general," she said.
The promotional video for the campaign ends with students saying, "Together we can make a difference because we don't want more memorials, we need change and change starts with a sticker."
LINK: My Last Shot