A proclamation declaring June 4 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the month of June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Month.
Thank you, Councilmember Herndon, and very important reminders for us as we move forward into the the solemn recognition of Memorial Day and the holiday. All right. Not seeing any other hands raised for announcements. We're going to move on. There are no presentations this evening. There are no communications. And there is one proclamation being read this evening. Councilmember Cashman, will you please read Proclamation 20 1-0615, please. Yes. Thank you, Madam President. This is Proclamation 20 10615, declaring June four to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the month of June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Month. Whereas every day more than 100 Americans are killed by gun violence alongside more than 230 who are shot and wounded. On average, there are more than 13,000 gun homicides every year. And WHEREAS, Americans are up to 25 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high income countries. And. WHEREAS, there have been more lives lost from gunfire in America than in all the wars in which U.S. troops have been engaged since our nation's founding. And. WHEREAS, in Colorado, nearly 80% of firearm deaths are suicides, and nearly half of all suicide deaths in Colorado involve the use of a firearm. And. WHEREAS, Gun violence dramatically impacts minority communities, with nearly three quarters of Coloradans killed by firearms being people of color. And. WHEREAS, in 2020, Colorado had 846 gun deaths with a rate of 14.2 deaths per 100,000 people, which ties us for the 18th highest firearms mortality rate of all 50 states. And. Whereas, in 2020, Colorado reported 11 mass shootings that killed six and injured 52. A year earlier, the state had four shoot mass shootings that killed two and injured 20. And. Whereas, in 2020, the number of people injured in shootings in Denver rose 512% from 2019 to a three year high of 305 victims. Nearly a third were children of teenagers, children or teenagers. And. Whereas, in 2020, in Denver, 117 persons died from gun violence, with suicides claiming 47 lives and homicide another 70. And. Whereas, thus far, in 2021, 46 people have already died from gun violence, with suicides claiming 15 lives and homicide, another 31. Whereas in Denver each year, some 700 young people are killed or injured by guns or are victims of gun related gun involved crimes each year? And. WHEREAS, in January 2013, Hadiya Pendleton, a teenager who marched in President Obama's second inaugural parade and was tragically shot and killed just weeks later, should be now celebrating her 23rd birthday. And. Whereas, to help honor Hadiya and the many Americans whose lives are cut short or injured by shootings every day, a national coalition of organizations designated the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. And. WHEREAS, the idea was inspired by a group of four Dias friends who asked their classmates to commemorate her life by wearing orange because orange because hunters wear orange to announce themselves to other hunters when out in the woods. And. Whereas, by wearing orange on June 4th, 2021, Americans will raise awareness about gun violence and honor the lives of gun victims, gun violence victims and survivors. And. Whereas, through the work of the Youth Violence Prevention Action Table and other initiatives, we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledged to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep all Denver residents safe. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver, Section one. That the Council of the City and County of Denver declares the first Friday of each year this year, June four, 2021, to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the entire month of June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Month, and encourages all citizens to support their local communities. Efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives. Section two The Clerk of the city and county of Denver shall attest and affixed the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation and a copy be transmitted to Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. Thank you. Councilmember Cashman, your motion to adopt. Yes, thank you. I move the proclamation 20 1-0615 be adopted. Okay. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of Council. Council member Cashman. Yeah. Thank you, Madam President. I'll let the proclamation stand for itself. It's. It's a dizzying number of statistics that demand our attention and the attention of all Coloradans and certainly all folks living in our city. We can. And the Second Amendment will be debated by good people on either either side, as long as we are a nation , I'm guessing. But I think we can all agree that we need to be sure that firearms are handled responsibly or out of the hands of people who have no business procuring firearms, and that we keep our children and all of us as safe as possible. I did want to give a shout out to our friends at the state capital who have a number of bills moving through the process right now to give cities more control over gun laws that they think make their jurisdiction more safe. Council member excuse me, Senator Chris Hanson has a bill that I believe will be debated tomorrow to create a state office of Gun Violence Prevention. So working together at the state and local level with the support of our constituents, I think we can perhaps bring more sanity to a situation that seems to be out of control right now. That's all I've got. Thank you, Madam President. All right. Well, thank you, Councilman Cashman. And not seeing any other hands raised. I appreciate the work that you've put forward in this proclamation and very happy to support it this evening. Madam Secretary, Roll Call Cashman. I can. I. Ortega, I. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Torres, I. Black I. See tobacco. I. Clark. I. Flynn. I. Herndon. I. Hines, I. Madam President, I. And I'm secretary. Please close the voting and announce the results. 13 Eyes. 13 Eyes. Proclamation 20 1-0615 has been adopted. Councilman Kasman, we have 5 minutes for a proclamation acceptance. Would you like to invite someone up to accept it? Yeah. I believe Rachel Barnes from Moms Demand Action is is in the attendees list, if we can promote her up. All right, we'll get Rachel into the queue. I see Rachel right there. Rachel. The floor is yours. Go ahead. And you'll need to. There you go. Sorry. This is very slow on my end. Thank you so much, city council, everybody. And Councilman Cashman, thank you so much for your support for this. I was going to list some statistics that that has already been done in the proclamation. And as a mother myself, I cannot imagine losing a child to anything. And so many mothers are losing children to gun violence, having their children killed. So it's so important that we raise awareness of this issue and continue to work to make this city, the state, our country, more safe. Because we have had over 40,000 over 40,000 people killed in 2020 by gun violence. And it's it's unacceptable and so incredibly sad. So thank you so much for this. And I hope that with awareness comes some change. And thank you.