Suspected gunman Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday, killing 20 young children and six adults before allegedly turning the weapon on himself.
The atrocity sent America into mourning and now radio bosses have taken note by removing the popular track from station playlists across the country due to the sensitive nature of its lyrics, which chronicles a kid's desire to plot a murder.
One particular line reads, "He found a six-shooter gun in his dad's closet, with the box of fun things... he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you," while the chorus features the lyrics: "All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, you better run, better run, faster than my bullet."
Speaking about the dark meaning behind the single, frontman Mark Foster previously explained, "Pumped Up Kicks is about a kid that basically is losing his mind and is plotting revenge. He's an outcast. I feel like the youth in our culture are becoming more and more isolated. It's kind of an epidemic."
Pumped Up Kicks is the latest tune to be yanked from the air in the wake of the shooting – Ke$ha's Die Young was also pulled due to its controversial title.
Ke$ha addresses ‘Die Young’ radio removal after school shootings
Die Young peaked at number three on American radio playlists and reached 167 million listeners before the shooting on Friday, according to TMZ.com, but figures from Mediabase, a company that tracks radio airplay, appear to show the song has suffered a massive drop after being cut from the airwaves.
It had reportedly lost 19 million listeners from its target audience by Monday.
Ke$ha previously commented on the massacre in a serious of posts on her Twitter.com page, sending her condolences to all the families involved. She wrote, "My heart goes out deeply to the people of Newtown, Connecticut... It's beyond words what has happened."
