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New gun control ad focuses on Newtown-like scenario

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- In advance of the one-year anniversary of the Newtown shooting, a chilling ad is being released by the gun control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, co-produced with Mayors Against Illegal Guns and chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Tom Menino.

The ad features the sound of a ticking clock with images of children in school and parents mourning and a narrator says:

"On Dec. 14, we'll have a moment of silence for Newtown. But with 26 more school shootings since that day, ask yourself, 'Is silence what America needs right now?'"

The spot closes with images of a person carrying a duffel bag and entering the school.

Menino tells FOX 25 it was intentional for the ad to come out around the Newtown shooting anniversary because the country needs to wake up to the fact that we have a problem with gun violence.

"It's very provocative, it's meant to be that way. Maybe we'll wake up some people in this country about the issue of gun control, because there's not gun control, there's crime control really to me," Menino said.

Dr. Steven Moysey, vice president of the Gun Owners Action League of Mass. and also a psychologist, said it's the groups right to run the ad, but it is very misleading.

"It was interesting use of psychological manipulation tactics pretty much, fear mongering, raising fear that there's going to be more school shootings that there's going to be more mass shootings, when we know that these incidents are very, while tragic, are rare," he said.

The ad will make its debut on cable TV this week. The one-year anniversary of the Newtown massacre is December 14.