Gun Violence Awareness Day In IL: Wear Orange, Other Things To Know

ILLINOIS — National Gun Violence Awareness Day is Friday, and the country is still reeling from several recent mass shootings — the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre, the Buffalo, New York, supermarket shooting and Wednesday’s deadly Tulsa, Oklahoma, hospital shooting. With continued gun violence in the city of Chicago, Illinois residents hardly need a reminder of the ways gun violence can tear at the fabric of our families and communities.

Organizers are urging residents of Illinois and other states to show support for Gun Violence Awareness Day is by attending a Wear Orange event. In the Chicago area, there are several happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and another event on Tuesday.

The events are sponsored by the Everytown for Gun Safety organization and its partners.

Here are some of the Chicago-area events:

• 4 p.m. Friday, June 3: LaGrange Park-Peace Vigil
• 10 a.m. Saturday, June 4: New Lenox - Wear Orange Blood Drive
• 2 p.m. Saturday, June 4: Hyde Park/Southside - Peace Fest Wear Orange Edition
• 4 p.m. Saturday, June 4: Oak Park - Peace Vigil for Wear Orange
• 9:30 a.m. Sunday, June 5: Winnetka - Wear Orange 5K Run/Walk
• 11 a.m. Sunday, June 5: Buffalo Grove - Pride Parade
• Noon Sunday, June 5: Geneva - Versiti Blood Drive
• 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 7: Vernon Hills - Call to Action!

Adding urgency to the observances: In 2020, gun violence killed more children than car crashes, for many years the leading cause of death among children, according to researchers who took a deep dive into federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gun mortality data. Their findings were published as a research letter in the New England Journal of Medicine.

They found that from 2019 to 2020, gun deaths jumped by nearly 30 percent among Americans ages 1-19.

Overall, gun violence spiked to a 25-year high in 2020, the CDC said in a report last month.

That year, the latest for which data is available, 79 percent of all homicides and 53 percent of all suicides involved guns, and the firearms homicide rate surged 35 percent from 2019, the CDC said.

Gun violence has taken a toll here as well.

In Illinois, the firearms mortality rate in 2020 was more than 14 deaths per 100,000 people, or a total of 1,745 gun deaths that year.

Here are more things to know about Gun Violence Awareness Day:

How Did It Start?

The event has its roots right here in Illinois. The first Gun Violence Awareness Day was held on June 2, 2015, on what would’ve been Hadiya Pendleton’s 18th birthday. The 15-year-old was fatally shot on a Chicago playground on Jan. 29, 2013, just a week after she marched in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade.

Once a single-day commemoration, Gun Violence Awareness Day has grown to a three-day observance in cities around the country. People are encouraged to wear orange throughout the June 3-5 weekend.

Why Wear Orange?

Shortly after her death, Pendelton’s friends began wearing orange — the color hunters wear as a safety measure — to commemorate her life.

Erica Ford of the New York-based gun violence prevention program Life Camp Inc. spearheaded the effort to make orange the defining color of the movement. Now it’s worn across the country to bring awareness to the hundreds of people injured or wounded by gun violence every day, according to organizers.

How To Show Support

One of the best ways to counter gun violence is through policy, according to the Wear Orange organization. Its website provides a link to email your U.S. senators and urge them to vote on House-approved gun reform legislation that has been stalled since 2019.

Be aware, the link goes to a boilerplate message from Everytown for Gun Safety. You can direct original letters to:

• U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth
• U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin

More links take gun violence prevention activists to social media tool kits, photo and video management, coloring pages and other resources.

Illinois Governor's, Opponents' Stance On Guns

Hours after the Texas school shooting, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker took to Twitter to voice his support for "all Americans who are working to end senseless gun violence wherever it occurs."
Pritzker has a history of supporting gun control measures.

In 2021, he signed gun safety legislation aimed at preventing mass shootings like the 2019 Henry Pratt shooting in Aurora. The law charges an Illinois State Police task force with the job of taking guns from people who’ve had their FOID cards revoked but haven’t turned over their weapons.

Aurora Shooter's FOID Card: Cops Find No Notice Of Revocation

The Henry Pratt shooter "absolutely ... was not supposed to be in possession of a firearm" at the time of the killings," since-retired Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said at the time.

She said gun owners whose FOID cards are revoked are issued a letter by Illinois State Police informing them that they must "voluntarily relinquish" their firearms. State police say the shooter was "responsible for surrendering his FOID card and any weapons in his possession" after his FOID was revoked, but police did not confiscate his guns.

State Police Investigate Why Aurora Shooter Still Had Gun

The 2021 FOID Modernization Bill expanded background checks on all gun sales in Illinois and increased mental health funding for communities hit hardest by gun violence. It also provided more funding to help Illinois State Police enforce the surrender of guns from those who have lost their FOID cards.

Last month, Pritzker signed legislation making Illinois the first Midwest state to ban "ghost guns," privately made firearms often sold as a set of parts to be assembled at home, allowing the buyer to avoid background checks. Ghost guns are difficult to trace and can be made on a 3-D printer, leaving no record of their ownership.

Meanwhile, Republicans hoping to win a spot on the November ballot against Pritzker spoke up at a candidate forum, most saying that more gun control isn't the answer to school shootings.

While Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin called for stronger background checks, businessman Gary Rabine said tougher gun laws aren't the solution because "bad people are going to get guns."

Venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan complained that when mass shootings happen, "Democrats always want to talk immediately about gun control and limiting our Second Amendment rights."

The Aurora shooting claimed the lives of five warehouse workers at the hands of a fired employee whose FOID card was revoked five years earlier when he applied for a concealed carry license and state police became aware of his conviction for a 1995 violent felony.