Boca Raton proclaims June 7 National Gun Violence Awareness Day; local activists urge residents to 'Wear Orange'

Mayor Scott Singer opened the May 29 workshop and read a proclamation declaring June 7, 2024, National Gun Violence Awareness Day in Boca Raton, urging residents to support local efforts to prevent gun violence.

Sarah Phillips, a leader of the Palm Beach County chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, thanked the council for the proclamation and framed gun violence as a public-health crisis. "Gun violence has become an epidemic, an epidemic that is now the number 1 killer of children in the U.S.," Phillips said, citing the Wear Orange campaign and the 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton as symbolic of the lives the effort seeks to honor.

Phillips urged residents to "wear orange on June 7 and speak to your neighbors about how we can all get involved to prevent gun violence," and described the campaign as both a commemoration of victims and a call to action for community safety.

The proclamation text included findings about national gun homicide figures and encouraged local prevention efforts while noting support for law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights. The council did not take additional action at the workshop beyond adopting the proclamation. The Wear Orange campaign and local Moms Demand Action chapters typically organize events and visibility efforts around the first Friday in June.