Marchers step up for gun violence victims

State leaders, survivors, activists join nation in push for awareness

Survivors and the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, gun law lobbyists, activists and lawmakers marched through Newtown on Friday night to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

The solemn day of recognition comes just 10 days after a gunman opened fire on an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 21 people in a tragedy all too familiar for many Connecticut families.

Leaders from Connecticut-based organizations such as Sandy Hook Promise, the Newtown Action Alliance, the Jr. Newtown Action Alliance and the national Moms Demand Action movement — all of which were started in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting — were joined by people from CT Against Gun Violence and CT Community Violence Intervention, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who is fighting for stricter gun laws to be passed by Congress.

According to Sandy Hook Promise — a gun violence prevention nonprofit co-founded by Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden, who both had sons who were killed in Sandy Hook — National Gun Violence Awareness Day was started by teens in Chicago who “refused to be silent in the face of gun violence.”

The teens launched the day of action after their friend, 15-yearold Hadiya Pendleton, was killed by a stray bullet in the city.

To recognize the day activists asked that people all across the nation wear orange, Pendleton’s favorite color and a color worn by hunters to protect themselves from gunfire, to raise awareness for victims of gun violence.

Her friends chose the June date in honor of her birthday, according to CT Against Gun Violence. The national “Wear Orange” events are held to remember victims, celebrate survivors and renew pledges to work together to end gun violence.

Jeremy Stein, executive director of CT Against Gun Violence, said there is no doubt that there’s been an increase in gun-related injuries and deaths right here in Connecticut over the past few years.

CT Against Gun Violence also hosted a “Wear Orange” event Thursday night in New Haven,

focused on the public health crisis of community gun violence and how it disproportionately victimizes Black and brown communities in Connecticut.

Last month 10 Black people were killed in a racially motivated mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo.

In the United States the Gun Violence Archive tracked 233 mass shootings so far in 2022.

The organization has recorded 8,176 gun violence deaths in the U.S. so far this year — 18,340 when counting firearms deaths by suicide.

Moms Demand Action CT was also at the event in Newtown. The national grassroots organization, fighting for safety measures to protect people from gun violence, was started by Shannon Watts, a mother of five who was moved to organize following the Sandy Hook shooting.

“In the wake of multiple tragedies, the fight to end gun violence has never been more urgent,” Moms Demand Action said in a statement.

The group said that across the nation thousands of people will be wearing orange this weekend in memory of Pendleton and the more than 40,000 people who are killed with guns and approximately 85,000 who are shot and wounded every year.

Sen. Blumenthal said he’s hopeful the Senate can soon pass a bipartisan gun law package, including measures he’s been championing for years, as he and his colleagues continue to discuss a path forward on bipartisan gun violence prevention measures following shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, Tulsa and countless communities nationwide.