Demonstrators spotlight gun violence
FAYETTEVILLE — A sea of orange T-shirts flooded the historic Walker-Stone House in Fayetteville on Saturday afternoon as about 70 community members gathered to remember Americans killed by gun violence.
“We are here to honor the lives cut short by gun violence, as well as survivors, and to come together as a community and elevate the voices of everyone demanding change,” said Catherine Snyder, Fayetteville group leader for Moms Demand Action, which put on the event. Snyder added that minority groups, gays and transgender people were disproportionately affected by gun violence.
Wear Orange is a national campaign and a coalition of more than 500 nonprofit groups, cultural influencers and elected officials working to reduce gun violence in America, according to its website.
It began in 2013 with Chicago teenagers who asked classmates to honor Hadiya Pendleton. The 15-year-old was shot in the back and killed while standing with friends inside Harsh Park in the Kenwood area of Chicago in January 2013 — one week after performing at events for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
Groups in cities across Arkansas took part in Wear
Orange events Saturday.
A smaller group of Moms Demand Action members met Saturday morning at Philips Park pavilion in Bentonville amid the crowds attending baseball games.
The Benton County-based group is smaller than the Fayetteville one, having launched in February, group leader Stephannie Baker said, but she is excited to see people getting involved.
“Events just like this one are happening in thousands of communities across America,” Baker said. “It’s about raising our voices and raising awareness. Wear Orange is nonpartisan. We support the Second Amendment. We want to find common ground and find a solution to move forward together.”
Baker said the events are about the children who have been killed in gun violence.
There was extensive coverage of Pendleton’s death because of her inauguration performance, Baker said, “but there were so many other incidences of gun violence that have barely made local news. Her family and friends knew they needed to elevate the voices of everyone that lives with the threat of gun violence every day.”
Baker said orange was chosen because it is the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and it is a color that reflects the value of human life.
“It literally means ‘don’t shoot me,’” she said. “It’s a bright color that cannot be ignored. We wear orange because we demand to be seen, and we demand change.”
Don Morrow is the pastor of First Christian Church and WaterWay in Bentonville. He said the color reminded him of his days in construction, and he views the Wear Orange movement as “a construction project.”
“We’ve got to build something better than what we are currently experiencing,” he said. “Construction takes time. It takes commitment. It takes a plan. It takes people keeping showing up.”