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