Sandy Hook Promise: learning from one of America’s saddest days

Newtown, CT (CNN) It’s one of those dates in history that you just can’t shake.

December 14, 2012.

My workout clothes were on and I was headed to the gym. But in a moment of procrastination… I turned on the TV.

There had been a shooting. At a school. An elementary school. In Connecticut. Children were dead.

At the time, my daughter was a year old. An infant who had already become my EVERYTHING!

I tried putting myself in those parents’ shoes. But there was just no way that they’d fit. Not without crushing every fiber in my soul.

I felt a 9/11-like sickness take over my stomach.

I had to get out of the house. Sadly, news radio informed me that the number of victims had increased during my drive. I hit the treadmill hard. Angry.

This can’t be America’s reality.

When I was a kid, we ducked and covered to prepare for tornadoes.

But gun violence — even for 6-year-olds — had now become the disaster to fear.

26 dead. 20 of them little kids…

It’s been four years since Newtown. And there have been countless mass shootings in this country since that God-awful day.

Thankfully, resolute parents of those young victims formed a non-profit called Sandy Hook Promise.

Their sole goal is to prevent other parents from ever knowing the pain of losing a child like they did.

The Sandy Hook Promise’s latest efforts ask that we learn from one of America’s saddest days in a powerful new PSA that will really, really make you think.

Segment written and produced for “CNN Newsroom L.A.” by: Ben Bamsey, John Vause and Alex Meeks