How You Can Help End Gun Violence
Whenever a politician mentions Chicago, we know that they mean. They use the name of my hometown as code for, “a place with lots of gun violence.”
But there’s another story that these narratives continue to miss -- the story of young Black and Latino teens like me working to set the groundwork for the amazing activism we now see in Florida and across the country.
It’s true that gun violence is always present here. Growing up in Chicago, I’ve had two uncles die due to gang-related gun violence. When I was eight, my father was shot and killed. Like the survivors of the recent school shooting in Sante Fe, Texas, I know just how traumatic gun violence can be.
Right now, countless students across the country are going to prom and graduation without parents, relatives, friends and classmates that have been taken by gun violence – without the people who should be there to celebrate these milestones. Like me, they’re heartbroken. Like me, they’re angry.
But we cannot allow our anger to leave us paralyzed. We owe it to those who’ve been killed, and to the students with loved ones have been taken, to stand up and say enough is enough.
That’s why on June 1, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, I’ll Wear Orange to honor the 96 lives cut short by gun violence every day in this country, and I urge all of you to join me in doing so.
My father’s murder meant that my only choice was to speak out – and the inaction of our leaders who turn a blind eye to gun violence in our communities fueled my anger. For most of my life, it felt like too many people were content with the way things were. They saw gun violence in Chicago as just a part of life.
I knew that I wasn’t ok with the status quo. I had to be part of the solution to end gun violence. With that in mind, I joined Peace Warriors, a group of students at my school who act to end gun violence and to support our classmates struggling to cope with the family members and friends killed by gun violence.
It may not get as much news coverage, but gun violence disproportionately affects communities of color living in cities. For Peace Warriors, it’s not just about school safety – it’s about the violence all around us. The violence in the streets, as well as the violence in people’s homes.
So, we fight for increased funding and support for mental health resources, schools and jobs. We know from our lived experiences that ending gun violence means putting young people first.
Simply put, gun rights shouldn’t win out over the lives of young people or our families.
Since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, students at my high school have joined hands with student leaders from across the country to demand that the safety of our communities be made a top priority. We marched for our lives in Washington, D.C., this spring. In small towns in Texas and in big cities like Chicago, we walked out of our classrooms in an unprecedented wave of student activism.
In Chicago, these actions are part of a cultural of activism many of us have been a part of since we were small children.
The Wear Orange campaign itself got its start right here in my hometown of Chicago. Orange was the color Hadiya Pendleton’s friends wore after she was shot and killed at 15 years old – just one week after performing in President Obama’s second inaugural parade.
The Wear Orange campaign reminds us that there are too many stories like Hadiya’s in cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans. Too many young men and women are being killed before they can walk across a stage for their high school diploma or go for their first driving lesson.
We deserve better than this. My dad deserved more, and so did my uncles and Hadiya and so many others whose names will never know. On June 1st, join me in wearing orange and saying never again to senseless gun violence, traumatized communities and the “what ifs” of young lives cut way too soon.
Arieyanna Williams is a gun violence prevention advocate from Chicago, IL.
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