After Uvalde, people consider an "Emmett Till moment" to change gun debate

But opponents of the tactic say it could intensify the trauma of grieving families or fuel misinformation and disinformation campaigns such as when InfoWars founder Alex Jones called the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a hoax.

Gordon, who is also president of the Mamie Till Mobley Foundation, has heard the arguments, but said she doesn’t know if showing images of gunned-down children would change people’s minds on gun control.

“I don’t think that opening the casket today, in this time, would have had the same effect that it had 67 years ago,” Gordon said. “The world can see everything now. It’s on social media, it’s on international news, so everybody is very aware and can see firsthand what is actually going on.”

Two years ago, when Gordon first saw the video of Floyd fighting to breathe in Minneapolis, she was unable to escape it because television stations kept replaying the footage of him dying.

“I had to close my eyes and just turn the channel, and my heart went out for his family that had to be subjected to that every single day on the hour,” Gordon said. “You can’t shield the youth, the young children, from it because they have access to it. … I think maybe you do become, in order to survive, maybe you do become a little bit desensitized.”