Over 100 supporters gather for gun violence awareness event in Hendersonville
More than 100 gun violence awareness supporters came together in front of the Historic Courthouse in Hendersonville on Saturday, June 4 to “press Congress to pass common sense gun laws and honor victims and communities impacted by gun violence,” according to a news release from Moms Demand Actions for Gun Sense, the group that organized the event.
The gathering was part of Wear Orange weekend, a nationwide event with more than 300 communities participating in vigils, marches, and protests in the wake of the latest mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, Buffalo, New York and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Orange is the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others from harm, the release notes. Protestors held signs of remembrance for lives lost at mass shootings in Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Parkland, and Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. The Howell family held signs to honor Riley Howell, who was shot and killed trying to save the lives of his classmates at UNC Charlotte in 2019.
Among the speakers was John Owens, the co-Lead of the Mom’s group in Western North Carolina and a survivor of a workplace shooting in 2005.
“We don’t hear about the grueling trials, medical bills, the lifelong physical and emotional complications. We don’t hear about those who survive the loss of a loved one; the grieving parents, grandparents, widows and children left behind. The trauma experienced by the witnesses, the EMTs, the police, the people who clean up the blood and recover the bodies.”
Kim Chao told the crowd about the BeSMART for Kids program which emphasizes secure firearm storage as an essential part of home safety. The group passed out information about safe storage, and gave out gun locks.
Rev. Dr. Mark Stanley of Trinity Presbyterian led the group in prayer to open the program, and Melinda Lowrance from the NAACP of Henderson County read a poem called “Hymn for the Hurting," written by Amanda Gorman, the young poet who delivered a poetry reading at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The NAACP was also one of the organizations that had an information table at the event, along with Safelight, the League of Women Voters, and the Progressive Alliance of Henderson County, which provided postcards to attendees to write Federal and State legislators about gun violence prevention.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a grassroots, nonpartisan organization that believes in common-sense solutions can help decrease the epidemic of gun violence that kills more than 100 people each day and injures 200 others, the release said.
For more information about the organization and event, go to wearorange.org and momsdemandaction.org.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Over 100 gather for gun violence awareness event in Hendersonville
