Advocates for gun violence prevention gathered in front of Edmond Town Hall on Friday, June 2, to commemorate National Gun Violence Awareness Day and participate in the eighth annual #WearOrange rally and march.

During the three-day observance of gun violence awareness, supporters don the color orange in solidarity with those affected by gun violence. The movement was started by friends of Hadiya Pendleton, a teenager who was shot and killed in Chicago in 2013.

The event came on the heels of the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, and the racially-motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, May 14.

The Newtown rally was organized by the Junior Newtown Action Alliance (Jr NAA), Newtown Action Alliance (NAA), Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), Survivors Empowered, CT Against Gun Violence (CAGV), and Moms Demand Action CT.

Featured speakers included leaders of locally-based advocacy groups, joined by officials including Senator Richard Blumenthal and First Selectman Dan Rosenthal. Blumenthal emphasized the gathering’s impact, saying that “Newtown is the beating heart of the campaign against gun violence.”

Reverend Andrea Castner Wyatt kicked off the event by leading attendees of all faiths in prayer for victims of gun violence.

“We weep with families devastated by 233 mass shootings in our nation already this year,” said Wyatt. Fellow spiritual leader Reverend Henry Brown also delivered a powerful address later in the program on behalf of Mothers United Against Violence.

Both urged attendees to turn their mourning and growing frustration into motivation for change.

Rosenthal outlined some of these changes in a proclamation, which stated that “by wearing orange on June third, we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence, pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of dangerous hands, and encourage responsible gun ownership.” Rosenthal also expressed his hopes for the safe passage of more expansive federal gun legislation in Congress, which Senator Blumenthal elaborated on later in his speech.

“People are dying, a hundred a day,” said Blumenthal. “Clearly the President gets it, because his call to action last night said to the senate ‘you have to do something.’ I can see from your excitement that you will continue to push to advocate and demand the senate does its job because we need action now … Let me put it very bluntly, it’s put up or shut up time for Republicans!”

Co-Chair of the Jr NAA and event host Maggie LaBanca spoke about her experiences as an 8-year-old survivor of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, and how it influenced her public service.

“I don’t want a shooting to define anyone else’s life,” she told the crowd. “I’ve been pushing all this time, pleading for representatives to prioritize my safety and begging political leaders to think of their children before they pick a side.”

Similar sentiments were shared by NAA Vice Chair David Stowe, who read off some poignant facts about gun violence in the United States.

“The number one cause of death for children in the United States is guns,” said Stowe, before asking, “how can this be true?” He then elaborated on why guns do not make people safer, saying that “having a firearm in the home — even when it’s properly stored — doubles your risk of becoming a victim of homicide and triples the risk of suicide.”

Sandy Hook Promise Co-Founders Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley took the podium next, to inspire hope and encourage the next generation of activists.

“I don’t think you want to hear from more adults,” said Hockley, “I would love it if none of us were talking today and all we were hearing from was the kids because they are the ones that have been living with school shootings for over ten years. They’re the ones practicing active shooter drills and lockdowns, and we’re just the parents who hope they come home every day.”

In the same vein, Director of Connecticut Violence Intervention Leonard Jahad made a vow he would “fight like a mom to protect our kids and not guns.”

Other speakers included Newtown residents Jim Allen and Alex Villamil, along with CT Against Gun Violence representatives Jeremy Stein and Jonathan Perloe. The latter two took a moment to present the organization’s Pen Power Project.

Their goal with the project is to encourage voters to write letters to encourage people in competitive districts to support candidates that are champions of gun violence prevention.

Closing out the event was a series of speeches from Jackie Hegarty, Nicole Melchionno, Leah Crebbin, and Olivia McAndrew of the Jr NAA, who were joined by local poet Miriam Aziz who recited her poem, “Sir.”