A proclamation declaring the first Friday in June, June 7, to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Thank you. Councilman, can you sing no other announcements? We're going to move on. There are no presentations this evening. There are no communications. But we do have one proclamation. Councilman Cashman, will you please read proclamation for some form? Thank you, Mr. President. This is proclamation number 19, Dashboard seven, for declaring the first Friday in June, June seven to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day, whereas every day 100 Americans die by gun violence. And on average, there are nearly 13,000 gun homicides every year. And. Whereas, in 2018, 885 men, women and children died by firearm in the state of Colorado, more than three quarters of which were suicides, which amounts to 15.5 firearm deaths per 1000 residents, the highest rate since 1986. And. WHEREAS, Denver's statistics show 3103 gun related offenses in 2018, including three 300 shootings, 63 cases of domestic violence, including a gun, 35 gun related suicides, 49 gun related homicides, and 1551 gun related violent crimes. And. Whereas, Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed with guns than people in other high income countries. And. WHEREAS, in the past 20 years, beginning with the horrific day at Columbine High School in Littleton in 1999, 14 students and one teacher have been killed in front range school shootings and almost three dozen injured in incidents at Columbine High School, Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Arapahoe High School in Centennial, and most recently at STEM School Highlands Ranch. And. Whereas, protecting public safety in the communities they serve is the government's highest priority responsibility. 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 a few weeks later should be now celebrated her celebrating her 22nd birthday. And. Whereas, to help India and the hundred Americans whose lives are cut short and the countless survivors who are injured by shootings every day, a national coalition of organizations has designated June seven, 2019, the first Friday in June as the fifth National Gun Violence Awareness Day. And. Whereas, the idea was inspired by a group of ideas friends who asked their classmates to commemorate her life by wearing orange because hunters wear orange to announce themselves to other hunters. When out in the woods, an orange is a color that symbolizes the value of human life. And. Whereas, anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June seven to help raise awareness about gun violence and honor the lives of gun violence victims and survivors. And. Whereas, we as Council members 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 our city 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 June seven, 2019, to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day and encourages all citizens to support their local communities. Efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and excuse me, honor and value human lives. And Section two that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall affix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation and that copies be transmitted to Moms Demand action. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Councilman Cashman. Your motion to adopt? Yes, sir. I move the proclamation 19 dash 474 be adopted. It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of Council. Councilman Cashman. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I do have thoughts, and I'm going to do my best to honor our five minute time limit. It is wise when there is an open flame around your home that you keep combustibles at a safe distance, be it a gas stove, a lit candle, a cigar or a fireplace. It's prudent to be sure the flame does its job cooking, illuminating, igniting or heating without causing unintended, disastrous collateral damage. How often have we seen the results in an unexpected breeze from an open window, blowing a cloth curtain onto a nearby candle, a cigaret or a cigar accidentally dropped between the pillows of a sofa or a campfire that is not properly extinguished, resulting in catastrophic damage to property and devastating loss of life. We have chosen to not outlaw the use of fire except in extreme conditions. But over the years, federal, state and local governments have put forth continuing public education campaigns, as well as ongoing changes to our building codes that have dramatically reduced the outbreak of unwanted fires in our communities. Yes, it's still erupt, disrupts our city periodically, caused accidentally or on purpose. But as a society we have been very intentional about recognizing the potential for danger that is presents and doing everything within our power to reduce the frequency with which it negatively, negatively impacts our daily lives. In America today, we have open flames everywhere that some do not recognize as such. The firearms that many of our fellow Denver aides and fellow Americans hold dear for protection, for feeding their families and for recreation. Some 330 million of them sit smoldering as well, free of unexpected situations. These guns and rifles should benignly and holsters, drawers, safes, racks in closets awaiting the call to whatever legitimate use their owner intends. But nearby, wherever these firearms are standing, we have accelerants in close proximity that can turn lives upside down in an instant. Accelerants like normal human forgetfulness that neglects to lock cabinets or empty chambers. Accelerants in the person of those with nefarious purpose in mind that intentionally misuse with evil intent. We have the hopelessness borne of an ever growing economic divide between rich and poor that is crushing the American dream, along with untreated mental illness and drug addiction that has an ever increasing percentage of our population ready to explode unpredictably at a moment's notice with the awareness burned into their brains, courtesy of social and mass media that firearms can help them ease the pain. Real or imagined that tortures them. Mr. President, we have not, as a society, done the same job keeping our communities safe from the unintended misuse of firearms as we have done in keeping it safe from the unintended misuse of fire. That has got to change. We have children who have never felt safe, never feel out of the reach of gun violence. They're aware of mass shootings at their schools, mass shootings in movie theaters, mass shootings in shopping malls at McDonald's restaurants, not to mention the everyday individual gun related injuries and deaths that are a part of their daily lives. I sat with my 14 year old granddaughter on election night in May as we awaited the returns, and I watched her break down in tears. As the news recounted the shootings that day at STEM school in Highlands Ranch. I sat in the audience last week at Stephen Knight Center for Early Education at a forum focused on keeping our kids safe at school. And was stunned as a seventh grader read the will she had written while I'm locked down at her school a few weeks ago. Her name is Ali, and she stepped up to the microphone, pulled out her cell phone and said, so this is my well, my best friend Blake gets $200 and my best wishes she gets to become a professional soccer player. I'm sorry, but when it gets to the point where a seventh grader is writing her will because she believes dying in a school shooting is a real possibility, there is something very, very wrong. We have figured out a way to preserve our right to use fire without seeing families incinerated on a regular basis. We haven't figured that out around firearms. That very important and very intentional conversation simply needs to take place. It needs to take place now at a city, state and federal level. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. And thank you for bringing this proclamation forward. Madam Secretary, roll call. Cashman. Black Eye. Brooks. Espinosa, i. Flynn. I. Gilmore, i. Herndon, i. Carnage eat. I knew Mr. President. I. Madam Secretary, please, because voting in no results. Will have a nice. 11 I's proclamation. 474 has been adopted. Councilman Cashman We do have 5 minutes for proclamation, acceptances, or some you'd like to call it. It's Mr. President, and I'd like to call up Sara Grossman representing Moms Demand Action. Who is wearing orange. Thank you for. That. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Councilman Cashman. I will make this as quick as possible. This past weekend, I celebrated my friend Drew Leinonen, 35th birthday. Unfortunately, he did not. His life was taken almost three years ago at the Pulse nightclub shooting. In the time since, as Americans, we have seen on average, 100 other people per day lose their lives to preventable gun violence. In the time since my home state of Florida has proven time and time again that they are being held under a petri dish by the NRA. While in Colorado, we are still subject to mass shootings and gun violence. I feel fortunate to call home a place that represents me and my values. Denver has always had my back from stepping up to enact laws to protect the most vulnerable constituents and expanding health care reform to passing marriage equality before the rest of the country to fighting for gun it common sense gun reform keeping us all much more safe. Three years ago, shortly after Drew's funeral, I returned from Orlando to Denver. A month went by before I decided it was time to stop sitting in my own grief and rejoin society. I knew I had to get into advocacy of some kind. I had to get back on the horse and remind people why we are still fighting against hate crimes, why we're still fighting against violence against the LGBT community. And since I lost one of my best friends to a senseless act of hate. I wanted to make sure other people didn't have to. I wanted to spare others from the pain that I felt, the pain that I still feel. I had to remind people why common sense gun laws are so important, even if it was just volunteering. I knew I had to do something. My very first action item was to create the website for the DRU Project, a nonprofit organization. Dru's friends and I started to honor him. To date, we have given away over $30,000 in scholarships to LGBTQ youth and have created and distributed curriculum for Gay-Straight Alliances in Florida to continue honoring Drew's legacy. This guide has been downloaded all over the world at this point. Drew started the first gay straight alliance at his high school in Seminole, Florida, when he was 17 and won the Holocaust Museum's Anne Frank Humanitarian Award for it. He was truly ahead of his time. His kindness and desire for inclusion and unity would be the encouragement we all needed to continue with his work. There is not one single person whom I encountered at his funeral who didn't refer to him as a best friend. That's the type of person he was. He had a best friend from high school, one from college, one from last Tuesday. This didn't make him a flake. This made him a person whose warmth was undeniably strong. My second action item was to get involved with on demand action for gun sense. I've spoken at several of their rallies and testified against dangerous gun bills on their Andrew's behalf. I continue my work with them and became a Survivor Fellow with Everytown for Gun Safety. My third action items tenure just ended when I stepped down from running communications for the Matthew Shepard Foundation and fighting daily for those we have to protect from violence. This city and these groups have saved countless lives through this work, not just those who may fall victim to gun or hate violence, but also those of us who weren't quite sure what to do with our grief in the days, weeks, months and even years following the passing of a loved one to the horror that is our American reality. This group in front of me is leading us to ensure we no longer have to accept thoughts or prayers as pension for the loss of our loved ones. Here, we all share the same belief that we can create a future free from gun violence. And I thank you all for continually supporting the survivor community. Thank you for commemorating June 7th as Gun Violence Awareness Day. If you can, I encourage you to attend the West Orange event this year. It's Saturday, June 8th at Park Field Lake Park from 12 until three, and we're holding it in partnership with Councilwoman Gilmore. We would love to have you out to support this proclamation and our efforts. From the bottom of my heart. I thank you for continuing to make us feel more safe this June and every June from now on. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That is our only proclamation this evening. So we're going to move on to our bills for introduction. Madam Secretary, will you please read the bills for introduction?