I can't get my mind of off this baby boy and his heartfelt message to end gun violence. Meet Jeffery Laney, at only six years of age he has a heart of gold and a passion beyond his years. Jeffrey lives in St. Louis where he's seen more than enough gun violence in the city and has had enough. In this four minute video he releases all of his frustrations and his fears. His mother , Leanndra Cheatham, told CNN that sparked Jeffery's speech was an upcoming event by James Clark, a local activist who does community outreach in St. Louis. The violence has hit close to home for Cheatham’s family, too. She says her 16-year-old cousin was shot to death outside of his school last month. Cheatham never imagined this video of her son would go viral. “I post plenty of videos of him,” she said. “I never thought this could’ve happened.” Cheatham shared this video on her Facebook Live last week, since then it’s been viewed more than 130,000 times.
“People need to stop killing each other around here because this is just making me feel bad,” Jeffrey says in the video, “I’m really serious. I’m really scared to die, and I’m really scared for my family to die. I’m scared.” Cheatham thinks, “It’s a little disturbing,” that her son is so aware of what’s going on in St. Louis. She just wants him to be able to enjoy his childhood. “I’m a kid, and I don’t supposed to be knowing all of this stuff,” Jeffrey says in the video. “I don’t supposed to be knowing about all of these guns.” But Cheatham says that Jeffrey sees the news and has been part of local events where gun violence is a topic.
If the video “changes the mind of a few or even if it’s just one person,” she considers that “a job well done.” Cheatham also says Jeffrey is excited about the video being so widely seen. “He said, ‘Mommy, we’re going to get people to stop killing each other.'” To this, Cheatham replied: “I believe you, son.”