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At the National Cathedral, Freedom Plaza, and a senior community, people are commemorating National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
WASHINGTON — Friday is National Gun Violence Awareness Day, and on Saturday and Sunday advocates are asking people to #WearOrange, a color chosen because that's what hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves.
Across the region and the nation, people are speaking up in hopes of saving lives.
At the National Cathedral, the sacred ground where America comes together to mourn and remember, a carillonneur tolled the bell 134 times, once for each person lost to gun violence on an average day in America.
"Each one of those bell tolls represents somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's grandmother, grandfather," said Kevin Eckstrom, a spokesman for the Cathedral. "This country needs to do something, anything, at this point."
Orange flags marked with the names and ages of the dead dotted the grounds, and in the walled garden, the tolling of the bell mixed with the sound of tears.
Chiquitta Williams set out quilts painted with the faces of the fallen.
"While it's beautiful, it's beautifully heartbreaking," she said of the victims, many of whom she knew. "It's both a blessing to remember and honor them. But the burden is their lives ended tragically and senselessly."
On Freedom Plaza, within view of the U.S. Capitol, hundreds of Washingtonians gathered under the Trigger Project's message that gun violence is a disease, not just a crime, and that coming together can bring hope and change.
"I have two young boys, and I just want a world they can grow up in without fear of danger of being shot by anybody," said Kendra Whitaker Shine, holding her children close.
Even at Goodwin House Senior Living Community in Bailey’s Crossroads, there are people touched by gun violence. Marietta Tanner was thinking about the alleged drug deal gone bad in Falls Church. A 20-year-old was shot to death, and an 18-year-old senior at Washington Liberty High School was stabbed to death. He was the best friend of Tanner's grandson.
"My grandson has just been in a gloom," she said. "He can't get ready for graduation.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, is encouraging people to post a message to social media this weekend:
- “Today, I will #WearOrange…”
- “in honor of my beloved child, [XXX].”
- “because I’m a hunter, and I know gun safety saves lives.”
- “because organizations like [xxx] continue to make a difference and reduce gun violence in my community every day”
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