Aiming to bring awareness of gun violence and to honor and remember gun violence victims, East Windsor Township Mayor Janice S. Mironov has declared June 7 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in East Windsor Township.
Mayor Mironov issued a special proclamation setting aside June 7 as a day to remember the victims of gun violence, which it said claims 100 American lives daily. There are 13,000 murders every year, according to the proclamation.
The proclamation encourages people to wear orange on June 7. Orange was the color chosen by the friends of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton to remember her after she was shot to death in Chicago, one week after performing in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade in 2013.
It was Pendleton’s death that inspired National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which is held on the first Friday in June.
The proclamation acknowledged the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens “goes hand-in-hand with keeping guns away from people with dangerous histories.”
Local officials and the police are most familiar with criminal activity and how to address it, the proclamation stated. They are in the best position to know how to keep the community safe from gun violence.
The proclamation also stated that East Windsor Township would “renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our children safe.”
By proclaiming June 7 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day, Mayor Mironov “encourages all citizens to support their local community’s efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives.”
Mayor Mironov said East Windsor Township has always been in the forefront in the interests of safe gun usage. If someone owns a gun, she said, they need to secure it in a safe manner so no one has access to it.
Every year in March, East Windsor Township makes gun locks available for free to township residents, Mayor Mironov said, adding that people do make use of them.
If a gun is kept in the house, it is possible that a young person might get hold of it and cause it to fire, resulting in a tragedy, she said. Someone may be in a bad state of mind or have access to a firearm, she said.
“We can all agree to have a difference of opinion on possession of guns,” Mayor Mironov said, adding that “people need to be made aware of how to use a gun safely and securely.”
