Like so many grieving communities across the United States, Boulder County residents and families have had their lives and hearts shattered by gun violence. In the wake of recent horrific mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York—and in addition to so many other tragic and preventable gun deaths, including the mass shooting at King Soopers in Boulder last spring which left 10 members of our community dead—the Board of County Commissioners declared June 2022 Gun Violence Awareness and Prevention Month and taking action to prevent gun violence in our Boulder County communities.
Stop Gun Violence Awareness
During the month of June, the Boulder County Commissioners and other communities across the county considered the passage of local gun violence prevention ordinances to protect the safety of children and adults in our communities.
The Commissioners invited all community members to: participate in Gun Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, wear orange on June 3 to help raise awareness about gun violence, support gun violence prevention measures, and honor the lives of gun violence victims and survivors.
Boulder County is joining other organizations and governments across the United States in raising awareness of gun violence and is working towards the prevention of gun violence here in Boulder County. From June 3 to June 5 the Courthouse was lit in orange in solidarity with the national movement to end gun violence.
The United States is an outlier in gun violence as compared to any of its peer nations and prevention and policy are essential to stemming the tide of violence in our communities. The U.S. ranks first in the world for firearm-related suicides and first for all firearm-related deaths among other developed nations. The U.K., Australia, Canada, and many European countries have enacted gun violence prevention policies to protect public safety. Research has demonstrated that nations and states with strong gun violence prevention policies have fewer deaths and injuries from gun violence than jurisdictions with weaker policies.
The Boulder County Commissioners are committed to preventing gun violence and have supported state legislation to prevent gun violence and death. In 2021, Boulder County supported Senate Bill 256, sponsored by Boulder County legislators Senate President Steve Fenberg and Representative Edie Hooton, which removed the restrictions that had prohibited local jurisdictions from passing gun violence prevention ordinances.
A national coalition of organizations and governments has designated June 3, 2022, the first Friday in June, as the 8th National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
The first National Gun Violence Awareness Day was established in 2013 to help honor Hadiya Pendleton, a teenager who marched in the presidential inaugural parade and was tragically shot and killed just weeks later in a playground. Soon after this tragedy, Hadiya’s friends commemorated her life by wearing orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others. “Wear Orange” is now observed every June. Thousands of people wear the color orange to honor Hadiya and the more than 40,000 people who are killed with guns and approximately 85,000 who are shot and wounded every year in the United States.