SLS 23RS-1976 ORIGINAL
2023 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 132
BY SENATOR DUPLESSIS
SPECIAL DAY/WEEK/MONTH. Designates Friday, June 2, 2023, as National Gun
Violence Awareness Day in Louisiana to honor and remember all victims and survivors of
gun violence.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To designate Friday, June 2, 2023, as National Gun Violence Awareness Day in Louisiana
3 to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence.
4 WHEREAS, every day more than 110 Americans are killed by gun violence,
5 alongside more than 200 Americans who are shot and wounded, and on average there are
6 nearly 16,000 gun homicides in the United States every year; and
7 WHEREAS, Americans are twenty-six times more likely to die by gun homicide than
8 people in other high-income countries; and
9 WHEREAS, Louisiana has 1,125 gun deaths every year with a rate of 24.7 deaths per
10 100,000 people; Louisiana has the second highest rate of gun deaths in the United States; and
11 WHEREAS, protecting public safety in the communities they serve is among a
12 legislator's highest responsibilities; and
13 WHEREAS, support for the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens goes
14 hand-in-hand with keeping guns away from people who should not have them; and
15 WHEREAS, gun violence prevention is more important than ever as the COVID-19
16 pandemic continues to exacerbate gun violence after more than two years of increased gun
17 sales, increased calls to suicide and domestic violence hotlines, and an increase in city gun
18 violence; and
Page 1 of 2 SR NO. 132
SLS 23RS-1976 ORIGINAL
1 WHEREAS, in January of 2013, Hadiya Pendleton of Chicago was tragically shot
2 and killed at the age of fifteen while standing with her friends in a public park; and
3 WHEREAS, in 2015 her friends, in commemoration of her eighteenth birthday, had
4 the idea to wear orange in tribute to her and other victims of gun violence, and their loved
5 ones; and
6 WHEREAS, orange was chosen as it is the color hunters wear to announce
7 themselves to other hunters while out in the woods and it symbolizes the value of human
8 life; and
9 WHEREAS, wearing orange is now observed every June to honor Hadiya and the
10 thousands of others who are killed or wounded by gun violence each year.
11 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
12 does hereby designate June 2, 2023, to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day and does
13 encourage citizens to wear orange and support their communities' efforts to prevent the
14 tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Celeste D. Ellis.
DIGEST
SR 132 Original 2023 Regular Session Duplessis
Designates Friday, June 2, 2023, as National Gun Violence Day in Louisiana to honor and
remember all victims and survivors of gun violence.
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