Hi John,

Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day! This day, always the first Friday in June, kicks off Wear Orange weekend. This is a time when gun violence prevention advocates across the country wear orange to honor the victims of gun violence and show support for the gun safety movement.

Wear Orange was started in 2013 after 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in Chicago just one week after she performed at President Obama’s second inauguration. Her friends and family chose to wear orange—Hadiya’s favorite color and the color hunters wear to protect themselves from gunfire—to honor her life and the tens of thousands of lives lost to gun violence every year. Since then, the gun violence prevention movement has carried on their efforts by wearing orange the first Friday in June.

Like last year, Wear Orange will be largely virtual this year. But the last year has made gun violence prevention more urgent than ever. So please show solidarity with the victims and survivors of gun violence.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Wear something orange and post it on social media! Be sure to use #WearOrange and tag @WaGunResponsib
2. Take action to prevent gun violence by asking your Senator to eliminate the filibuster!
3. Donate to support our lifesaving work!

We hope you’ll join us in these acts of solidarity. We are so fortunate to be part of such a supportive and effective movement.

Thank you for being a part of it,
Maureen (she/her)

PS - If you don’t have social media accounts, you can email a photo to [email protected] and we will share them from our accounts!