On August 5, 2019, Del Rey released a video of her singing a new song she had written in the studio that day with producer Jack Antonoff on guitar and engineer Laura Sisk. The track was written following the back-to-back El Paso and Dayton mass shootings. Del Rey commented on the song's meaning, stating "Now I know I’m not a politician and I’m not trying to be so excuse me for having an opinion- but [I wrote the song] in light of all of the mass shootings and the back to back shootings in the last couple of days which really affected me on a cellular level." The video quickly attained popularity, gaining over a million views within a few days. She was inspired while visiting the Central Valley of California, while mentioning the City of Fresno, CA, and many others.