City council adopts Gun Violence Awareness Day proclamation

Published 2:30 pm Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Gun violence awareness is such a critical issue that Mercer Island City Councilmember Craig Reynolds suggested that a proclamation be moved from the consent agenda to regular business at council’s July 1 regular meeting.

That shift was approved and so was the proclamation that unanimously marked June 6 as Gun Violence Awareness Day on Mercer Island.

“Every day, 125 Americans are killed by gun violence and more than 260 are shot and wounded, with an average of nearly 19,000 gun homicides every year. People in the United States are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high income countries,” the declaration begins with statistics culled from Everytown for Gun Safety research.

“Cities and towns across the nation, including Mercer Island, are working to end the senseless violence with evidence-based solutions,” the document adds.

Reynolds noted that around two thirds of all the United States’ yearly gun violence deaths are by suicide. This statistic is listed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

“I think it’s very very important that we all take that as a warning, to practice safe storage practices in our community,” said Reynolds, who reminded people that the Mercer Island Police Department provides free trigger locks. “That’s part of a good safe storage strategy in your home to keep yourself, your family, your neighbors, your friends — help keep them all safe.”

Longtime Island resident Michele Silbey — who is the local chapter lead for Everytown for Gun Safety — addressed council during the public appearances portion of the meeting: “Any step, small or large, to bring increased awareness of this critical issue will help ensure that our friends, neighbors and children will not have to experience the horrors of gun violence during their lifetimes.”

Gun storage is vital, she said, adding that statistics show gun violence as the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States (as noted on the CDC site).

“I do not want our community to become one of the many published in a flashy news headline about an avoidable tragic event, an event that would reverberate through every single member of our community for years,” she said.

Copious Islanders and people across the United States wore orange on June 6 in tribute to Hadiya Pendleton, who was tragically shot and killed at age 15 in January of 2013. Orange is the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others, according to the Wear Orange website, which mentions this year being the 11th National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

“Wear Orange honors Hadiya and the 125 people shot and killed every day in the United States, along with the hundreds more who are wounded and the countless others whose lives have been changed by gun violence,” the site reads.