Leaders call for end to gun violence on National Wear Orange Day

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Friday, June 5, is National Wear Orange Day, a day calling for an end to gun violence.

Mayor Barrett and Congresswoman Moore joined local, state and national leaders in a virtual roundtable.

The day has taken on new meaning with more people staying at home due to coronavirus and the recent protests.

In the end, it all comes back to the same issues.

"When we're having a conversation about gun violence, we have to be truthful in admitting the impact that has produced the gun violence we have seen in our communities," said Jamaal Smith of the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention. "There has to be a conversation centered around the impact of systemic and structural violence -- systemic and structural racism that has led down to the communal and interpersonal violence that we've seen on a consistent basis."

Wear Orange Day was established by the friends of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old teen who was tragically show and killed in Chicago one week after performing at President Obama's second inaugural parade in 2013.

Since then, orange has become the defining color of the gun violence prevention movement.