Skip to content
Sign In Donate
Wear Orange Weekend — National Gun Violence Awareness Day — Community — Public Safety

'Wear Orange Weekend' aims to reduce firearm injuries, deaths

,   and  Citizen Staff Reports
2 min read
(Courtesy Every Town For Gun Safety))

June 5 is National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the start of Wear Orange Weekend, June 5-7, which aims to encourage people to take precautions that can help reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths.

“Community safety means prevention, response, and healing,” said Tamara Jones-Groves, population health manager at Richmond and Henrico Health Districts. “National Gun Violence Awareness Day gives us an opportunity to share practical steps — like safe firearm storage — and support families and communities impacted by violence.”

Wear Orange originated on June 2, 2015 and remembers 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago, just one week after marching in President Obama's second inaugural parade.

Soon after Pendleton's death, her friends commemorated her life by wearing orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others.

Today, Wear Orange honors Hadiya and the more than 125 people who are shot and killed every day in America, as well as the hundreds more who are wounded and the countless others who witness acts of gun violence. Wear Orange brings together survivors, activists and communities all over America to demand change.

Among the firearm safety tips offered by RHHD officials:

• Store firearms unloaded and locked with a firearm safe, locked box, trigger or 
chamber lock;

• store and lock ammunition in a separate place from your firearms;

• remove firearms from your home if you have a depressed or suicidal family member. 

Firearm safety tips for parents and caregivers include: 

• Checking with the owners of any home, before sending your child there, to ask if firearms in the home are stored unloaded and locked; if ammunition is stored separately; if there are shotguns and rifles in the home. 

• talking to your child about the risk of firearm injury in places where they visit or play;

• teaching children that if they find a firearm, they should leave it alone and tell an adult right away;

• teaching children that if another child shows them a weapon, they should leave the room and immediately and tell an adult. 

According to VDH Firearm Injury and Death data, there were 120 emergency department visits by Henrico residents in 2025 for firearm injuries – up from 115 such visits the year before.

The most recent statistics on firearm deaths in the county are from 2023, when there were 43 (down from 61 in 2022). The federal government shutdown last fall affected death certificate finalization, so statistics from 2024 are not yet available.

During the years 2019 – 2023, 122 (51%) of the firearm deaths in Henrico were homicides and 111 (46%) were suicides. 

People in crisis can call 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 

RHHD serves as the operating agent for the Trauma Healing Response Network and coordinates the THRN as part of an overall gun violence prevention program.

Learn more about the program at THRN’s Instagram and Facebook pages.

For details about RHHD Violence Prevention Program, contact Lorraine Jones at lorraine.wright@vdh.virginia.gov or call (804) 482-8016.   

Comments