IN THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE OF JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
Title
A RESOLUTION recognizing the month of June 2024 as Gun Violence Awareness Month.
Intro
RESOLUTION NO. 21644, June 3, 2024
INTRODUCED BY Manuel Abarca IV and Venessa Huskey, County Legislators
Body
WHEREAS, gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the United States, according to the latest mortality data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and,
WHEREAS, gun suicide claims the lives of more than 25,000 people in the United States every year; and,
WHEREAS, in the eight years between 2015 and 2022 over 19,000 people were shot and killed or wounded in the United States in a mass shooting; and,
WHEREAS, every month, an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner, nearly one million women alive today have reported being shot at by intimate partners, and over 4.5 million women have reported being threatened with a gun by an intimate partner; and,
WHEREAS, in an average year, more than 25,000 hate crimes in the US involve firearms, a rate of 69 gun related hate crimes a day; and,
WHEREAS, firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens (ages 1 to 19) in the United States and every year, more than 21,000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded and approximately 3 million are exposed to gun violence; and,
WHEREAS, two in three incidents of gunfire on school grounds from 2013 to 2021 occurred in schools where one or more racial and/or ethnic minorities constituted a majority of the student population; and,
WHEREAS, on January 21, 2013, Hadiya Pendleton marched in President Obama's second inaugural parade, and one week later, Hadiya was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago; and,
WHEREAS, soon after this tragedy, Hadiya's friends commemorated her life by wearing orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others, beginning the tradition of wearing the color orange t...
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