Adventures in Gov

Gun Violence Awareness Day

Alder Mara Helmke and Alder Beth Tucker Long wearing orange to promote awareness of gun violence.

This June, we commemorated National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the city of Verona along with communities and groups all over the United States. Why are we raising awareness about gun violence? Because too many people are getting hurt or killed. 125 people in the United States are killed by gun violence every day and an additional 260 are wounded by gun violence. This is not only an issue somewhere else. Just in Wisconsin there is an average of 741 gun deaths every year. These numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. Per a 2024 report published by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, “In the U.S., gun death rates in this age group [children ages 1-17] have increased by 106 percent since 2013 and have been the leading cause of death among this group since 2020.”

Mayor Luke Diaz proclaimed the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day here in Verona, WI, so Alder Mara Helmke and I wore orange to help promote the day, but more importantly, the awareness and education.

Why orange? Hadiyah Pendleton’s friends began Project Orange Tree after Hadiyah was shot in the back and killed at age 15 while standing with her friends at a playground after finishing her exams. Her friends chose to wear orange as it is the color that hunters wear to protect themselves. Their project inspired the Wear Orange campaign, which hopes to expand on their work to help educate people on gun safety and find ways to protect everyone from gun violence and accidental gun deaths.

Alder Mara Helmke and I are not just wearing orange. While we both think that spreading awareness is very important, we also know that it is not enough on its own. We are also working to promote safe gun storage in the City and our school district.

How can guns be stored safely? Secure the gun with a gunlock and store the gun unloaded in a locked location, like a gun cabinet. Ammunition should be stored in a separate locked location.

Did you know that you can get a free gunlock from our Verona Police Department? Just stop by the reception desk at the police station and the friendly staff there will get you hooked up.

How important is it to safely store your firearms? According to the study, “Gun Storage Practices and Risk of Youth Suicide and Unintentional Firearm Injuries” (David C. Grossman et al., JAMA 293, no. 6 (2005): 707–14), using just one of the main safe gun storage practices (locking the gun, storing the ammo separately, etc.) is associated with “significant reductions in the risk of unintentional and self-inflicted firearm injuries and deaths among adolescents and children.” The study shows that children in households which lock both firearms and ammunition had a 78% lower risk of self-inflicted firearm injuries and an 85% lower risk of unintentional firearm injuries compared to children in households that lock neither.

Want to learn more about safe gun storage? Here are some resources: