Milwaukee events promote safety, gun violence awareness
With gun violence skyrocketing, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson declared asked people to wear orange throughout the weekend to raise awareness.
MILWAUKEE – With gun violence skyrocketing in Milwaukee, Mayor Cavalier Johnson declared Friday, June 3 National Gun Violence Awareness Day and asked people to wear orange throughout the weekend.
Saturday, photos of people who lost their lives to gun violence lined Sherman Boulevard.
“It’s really sad, and it’s hard because it’s really just a struggle when you just sit and think like: Wow, my son was killed,'” said Karin Tyler with Milwaukee’s Office of Violence Prevention.
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Tyler lost her son in 2011. He was shot and killed during a robbery at his apartment. June is a hard month for Tyler; her son’s birthday was June 8.
“It’s an emotional time for me, and I don’t think people realize the different things that moms or families have to go through after everything happens, even years after,” she said.
Photos of gun violence victims line Sherman Boulevard, part of “Wear Orange” weekend
How to reduce gun violence is a topic many people have opinions about.
“We want to be out here to show support to the families, to show support for the community, but to also distribute gun locks to promote firearm safety,” said Vaynesia Kendrick, an adolescent suicide community outreach specialist.
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About five miles south of Saturday’s event along Sherman, Adam Campbell works as the director of training for Brew City Shooter’s Supply.
“There’s a lot of people that have guns that don’t know anything about them, and they get most of their information from movies or the media,” Campbell said. “To reduce gun crime overall, if you’re just putting that question, posing it to me like that, I would say the key is education, training.”
Brew City Shooter’s Supply
Back on Sherman Boulevard, people held up signs and wore orange Saturday. The city’s Office of Violence Prevention said it will continue to offer outreach events.
“We’ll have different organizations out in all types of communities every weekend doing this work,” said Tyler.
The “Wear Orange” event started seven years ago to honor a Chicago teen who was shot and killed.
