LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Last year was one of the deadliest years for gun violence in the United States.
As part of Wear Orange weekend, the Nevada chapter of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots anti-gun violence movement, hosted an event to promote gun violence prevention and honor the lives of those affected by gun violence.
The event was held on National Gun Violence Awareness Day at Lorenzi Park.
Governor Steve Sisolak spoke at the event and expressed his concerns about gun violence and the need for background checks for those purchasing guns.
“What someone can do with an AR-15 in three minutes will boggle the mind. It will kill so many people, three minutes is too long, three seconds is too long,” Gov. Sisolak told 8 News Now. “We need to put an end with people carrying AR-15s.”
The event comes just days after the tragic shootings in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Tulsa.
“Those families’ lives will never be the same after these shootings,” Gov. Sisolak added. “I can’t imagine when you see these little coffins that are going out and being buried what these families have to be going through.”
Gov. Sisolak concluded the event by proclaiming June 3, 2022, as National Gun Violence Awareness Day in Nevada.
“AR-15s and AK-47s are weapons of war, they are developed to go to war with not to go into your neighborhood theater, or into a school or shoot a feral pig,” Sisolak expressed. “That is not what an AR-15 or AK-47 is designed for. It’s a killing weapon and we don’t need them.”
Attendees of the event wore orange, the color that hunters normally wear in the woods in order to protect themselves and others.
Wear Orange weekend was started in 2015 by a group of teenagers in Chicago after 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in 2013.
Thousands participate in Wear Orange to honor Hadiya and all other victims of gun violence.