Eighth Annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange Campaign Covers America in Orange as Part of Nationwide Effort Calling for Action to Prevent Gun Violence

More Than 370 Events Took Place Throughout Wear Orange Weekend; Wear Orange 2022 Participants Included More Than 1,500 Partners, Influencers, Landmarks, and Elected Officials

Advocates, Volunteers and Students from Across the Country Continued Calling for Action and Telling Lawmakers Don’t Look Away from our Country’s Gun Violence Crisis During a Rally Yesterday in Washington, D.C

NEW YORK — During National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 3 and Wear Orange Weekend, June 4-5, more than 1,500 partner organizations, influencers, corporate brands, elected officials, and landmarks joined hundreds of thousands of Americans to honor victims and survivors of gun violence, demand a future free from gun violence, and call on the U.S. Senate to take action. 

Wear Orange began on June 2, 2015 – what would have been Hadiya Pendleton’s 18th birthday. Hadiya’s friends were looking for a way to honor her after she was shot and killed on a Chicago playground, and chose the color orange because it’s what hunters wear to protect themselves and others in the woods. This year’s Wear Orange campaign came as the country is reeling from multiple tragedies, including the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and in Uvalde, Texas. 

Wear Orange honors Hadiya and the more than 110 people shot and killed every day in the United States, as well as the hundreds more who are shot and wounded. Activists across the country united over the weekend with record engagement to call for an end to all forms of gun violence, including mass shootings, domestic violence, firearm suicide, and city gun violence.

Support for the Wear Orange campaign and National Gun Violence Awareness Day continues to grow each year. Full details on Wear Orange 2022 are available here. Highlights of the weekend include:

• Thousands of gun violence survivors, grassroots volunteers from Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, in collaboration with the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and more than 200 local partners, hosted more than 370 events and activities in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The events ranged from rallies calling for Senate action on gun violence prevention in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Columbia and Austin, walks across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and community gatherings in Jacksonville, Florida and Raleigh, North Carolina. 
• There were more than 212,000 social media mentions throughout Wear Orange Weekend, over 6,000 of which were generated by gun violence survivors, helping #WearOrange trend nationally on National Gun Violence Awareness Day for the seventh year in a row.
• This year President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden illuminated the White House in orange on Friday, June 3 in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange weekend. 
• More than 300 landmarks, buildings and billboards across the country turned orange, including the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, Washington National Cathedral, Aloha Tower, Skydance Bridge, Lamar Advertising digital billboards, and over 20 stadiums and arenas.
• More than 200 influencers and cultural leaders participated in #WearOrange this weekend, including Julianne Moore, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jimmy Kimmel, Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Morales, Jason George, Amy Schumer, Courtney B. Vance, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Shawn Mendes, Michael Franti, Bon Iver, Pearl Jam, The Lumineers, Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber.
• Wear Orange partnered with the professional sports community in a big way this year, including support from more than 90 individual teams, ranging from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Union, Miami Marlins, Miami Dolphins, Phoenix Mercury, Washington Mystics, Washington Nationals, Washington Commanders, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Sky, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Texans, Houston Dash, Dallas Wings, Houston Dynamo, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota United, San Francisco Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Golden State Warriors, Oakland A’s, Portland Thorns, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Connecticut Sun, Seattle Kraken, Nashville Predators, Washington Capitals and the USMNT, along with league-wide, player-led engagement of the entire WNBPA. Dozens of individual athletes also participated in Wear Orange weekend, including Everytown Athletic Council members, Race Imboden, Natasha Cloud, Devereaux Peters, Stedman Bailey, Delanie Walker, Alejandro Bedoya, Reggie Bullock, Hilary Knight, Aaron Donald, Joakim Noah and Diontae Spencer. 
• More than 40 corporate brands supported Wear Orange including Gucci, Levi Strauss & Co., Northwell Health, Penguin Random House and Yahoo!. In addition, media brands like Bad Robot, Paramount, MTV Entertainment Studios, Lemonada Studios, Parents, PEOPLE, and POPSUGAR joined the campaign this year. 
• More than 190 federal lawmakers and at least 430 state level elected officials supported Wear Orange on social media and at local events across multiple branches of government, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12), Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA-14), Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Mike Thompson (D-CA-05), Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and members of the Cabinet and White House. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL-02) also introduced resolutions recognizing June 4th as National Gun Violence Awareness Day and June as National Gun Violence Awareness Month to honor Hadiya’s birthday – June 2, 1997 – and to remember all victims and survivors of gun violence, with participation from both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees official accounts. 
• More than 110 mayors from around the country participated in the Wear Orange campaign including Mayor Byron Brown (Buffalo, NY), Mayor Quinton Lucas (Kansas City, MO) Mayor Eric Adams (New York City, NY) and Mayor Regina Romero (Tucson, AZ) by issuing proclamations declaring June 3 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day, lighting municipal landmarks orange, posting on social media and participating in local events.
• More than 200 non-profit organizations and faith partners across various issue areas joined the coalition of organizations turning orange over the weekend, with groups like the National Parent Teacher Association, Centering Black Voices Research Lab, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Latino Justice, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Education Association, the National Head Start Association, the National Urban League, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Safe Kids Worldwide, Voto Latino and many more taking part in Wear Orange weekend.