Sad

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How sad is the following item, reprinted from a newspaper article, and how fortunate that we have so far been spared the horror of such events.

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A mother has revealed her heartache after realising that what seemed to be a funny photograph of her three-year-old daughter revealed a more disturbing truth. 

Stacey Wehrman Feeley from Traverse City, Michigan took a photo of her little girl standing on top of the toilet to send to her husband, thinking she was being mischievous. 

But she 'broke down' when her daughter explained she was in fact practising the lockdown drill she'd been taught at preschool in the event of a gun attack. 

The powerful image and Stacey's accompanying message begging for changes to gun laws has been liked more than 5,000 times and shared more than 8,700 times since she posted it on Facebook. 

Stacey admitted that the moment her daughter revealed she was practising what she'd been taught to do if she got stuck in a bathroom during an attack made her realise all her daughter's innocence was gone. 

'Politicians - take a look. This is your child, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren and future generations to come,' Stacey wrote. 

Stacey went on to call for tighter gun control, asking why there are no universal background checks or a universal registration database.

'Banding together, signing petitions, rallying to get your voice heard is good, but is it actually doing anything or just making us feel better about the current situation? We need action,' she added.

'I am not pretending to have all the answers or even a shred of them, but unless you want your children standing on top of a toilet, we need to do something.' 

'The Australian government had a mass shooting then banned guns and the Australians didn't go nuts. It makes sense. 

'Get those guns off the streets and keep them on the ranges and in the military.'

Teacher Laura Susan Bird said she had practised similar techniques with her young students.

'I sat in bathrooms running these drills with my three to six-year-old students, trying to alleviate their confusion and fear by telling them that it was just like we were playing a game. 

'We were pretending to hide from our administrator, "just like hide and seek," and had to be super quiet. 

'What a surreal nightmare to practice with young children. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE.

Sheila Breen asked: 'What are we doing to our kids? This is awful.' 

Tala Clark added: 'This breaks my heart. Our babies' sad reality.'

Sharone Elgood admitted the photo had made her cry. 

'Poor little thing,' she wrote. 'I'd like to say it would never happen, but this world is full of madness Please give her a hug from me.'

Ashleigh Louise echoed her sentiments, saying: 'This is absolutely heartbreaking. It is disgusting that this is the world we live in today, that a three year old is practicing hiding from a gun man if he should come into her school.'

However, not everyone thought that it was problematic for youngsters to learn such things. 

Terilynn Years wrote: 'Preparing for the worst? Isn't such a bad thing.'

Ashley Joyce was also a dissenting voice, saying that teachers should be taught how to protect their charges. 

'Maybe, just maybe, if they teach the people that are "leading" our children how to properly protect the children by using guns safely then there would be less chance of something happening, like another mass shooting,' she said. 

'The way some people think, makes my blood boil. Guns aren't bad, criminals are bad and criminals aren't going to be the ones turning in their guns anytime soon.

'If I'm standing in a public place and a crazed gunman comes in, I'll be sure to point him in the direction of all the unarmed liberals, and then I'll use my LEGAL gun to protect me and mine.' 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3652198/Photo-little-girl-standing-toilet-hide-gun-attacker-sweeps-web.html#ixzz4ChNizLYP