U.S. mother horrified to find young daughter practising lockdown drill

Stacey Wehrman Feeley’s initial amusement at finding her daughter perched on top of the toilet in their home’s washroom quickly turned to horror.

The Michigan girl was not playing a game — she was practising her preschool’s lockdown drill, should she be trapped in a washroom when danger strikes.

READ MORE: Study finds the U.S. has 31% of the world’s mass shootings

“The moment she told me what she was doing I broke down,” Feeley wrote in a Facebook post from June 15, which has since gone viral.

“At that moment all innocence of what I thought my three-year-old possessed was gone.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "At that moment all innocence of what I thought my three-year-old possessed was gone."

The mother’s post then takes aim at gun control in the United States, and politicians’ failure to tighten gun laws.

“Politicians — take a look. This is your child, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren and future generations to come. They will live their lives and grow up in this world based on your decisions. They are barely 3 and they will hide in bathroom stalls standing on top of toilet seats.”

The U.S. has been marred by mass shootings in recent years, including :

• 49 people killed in an Orlando gay club this month
• 9 people killed at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. last year
• 12 people killed in a Colorado movie theatre in 2012
• 20 young children and six educators killed by a lone gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

READ MORE: 3 years after Sandy Hook massacre, U.S. states have expanded gun rights

Documents released after the Sandy Hook massacre revealed that a dozen bodies, most of them children, were found packed “like sardines” in one of the school’s washrooms.

“No one thinks gun control will be 100% crime control,” Feeley goes on. “But maybe, just maybe, it helps 1% or 2% or 50%? Who knows unless we try?

“Why on earth are there not universal background checks? Where is a universal registration database? Why are high capacity magazines ever permitted to be sold to anyone other than direct to the military? Is that really necessary to protect yourself or hunt for that matter?”

Going after the United States Constitution’s Second Amendment — the right to bear arms — will take too long, Feeley says. In the meantime, there needs to be advances in mental-health care, smart gun technology, and safer public spaces, she writes.

“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!”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "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!"

Feeley’s impassioned plea comes at a telling time.

On Monday the U.S. Senate rejected gun control reform, including proposals for a beefed up background check system.

WATCH: U.S. President Barack Obama calls for more gun control

1:48 President Obama gets emotional during gun control speech, talks executive action

• President Obama gets emotional during gun control speech, talks executive action
• Obama specifies exactly what new gun control measures his administration is introducing
• Obama rejects the thinking that enhanced gun control laws wouldn’t have help prevent some mass shootings
• President Obama outlines constitutional argument for increased gun control laws
• President Obama makes his case for increased gun control laws
• President Obama to elaborate on new gun control measures

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