MAPLEWOOD, NJ — On the evening of June 2, among the laughs and cheers echoing through Memorial Park in Maplewood from ball games, a crowd draped in orange was meeting for a more serious reason. South Orange and Maplewood residents came to the park to remember all victims and survivors of gun violence on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
The gathering in Maplewood was just one of more than 150 similar events taking place across the country June 2.
The “Wear Orange” movement in which the two towns participated was formed after Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old high school student from the south side of Chicago, was shot and killed Jan. 21, 2013, just one week after marching in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade. Pendleton’s friends and family used the color orange to call attention to her death, the same color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others from being accidentally shot. This tragic occurrence soon sparked friends and family to form a group to commemorate her life, which quickly gained national attention.
Attendees at the Memorial Park gathering held signs calling for an end to gun violence and bearing remembrances of loved ones and friends killed as a result of gun violence.
“There is insufficient control of guns, people are walking around with them — it has to stop,” Maplewood resident John Florio told the News-Record at the event. “Too many young people are dying. I know a man who had a gas station in Irvington and he got shot in his station trying to conduct business. It is unacceptable that human life is being completely disregarded.”
And gun violence has certainly hit close to home in recent years. Some attendees wore signs remembering Brendan Tevlin, 19, of Livingston, who was killed in West Orange on June 25, 2014. The teenager, who had strong ties to Maplewood, was returning home from a friend’s house when Ali Muhammad Brown shot into his car 10 times, striking him eight times and killing him. In addition to the Tevlin homicide, Brown has also been charged with terrorism, a first-degree crime with which no one in New Jersey’s history has ever been previously charged. Brown is also charged with killing three men in Seattle.
Rachel Fisher, who has worked for the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America campaign in the area, began the June 2 event by thanking everyone and discussing gun violence across the nation.
“I think that the widespread availability of guns, and just how easy it is for someone to get a gun, is so wrong, and I think that it’s intersected with many other problems in our society,” Fisher said. “If we can fix this, we can help fix some other things too. I think our community is not one where people need to be persuaded regarding Moms Demand Action, but I think it’s important to show the numbers and take the photo and add it to the chorus of voices.”
According to speakers at the event, Americans are 25 times more likely to be murdered with guns than people in other developed countries. Each day 91 Americans are killed by gun violence and many more are injured in shootings.
The common theme in all of the speeches made during the event was a focus on children.
Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca spoke of renewing the town’s commitment to reducing gun violence and the pledge to do all that can be done to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. He encouraged responsible gun ownership to help keep children safe in the two towns.
Capt. Dawn Williams of the Maplewood Police Department summarized the event saying, “Tonight was very successful as it was put together in a short amount of time and got people of all ages to participate. For me personally, that is an added bonus, because the younger generation has the most opportunity to make a change at this point, because they are the ones that are changing the future.
“I hope this event gains momentum and becomes not only a single day event, but happens every day to get the message across to stop gun violence,” she continued.
To conclude the evening, everyone in attendance gathered for a group photo, representing the community’s unity and desire to tackle this issue. This photo will be submitted to the official Wear Orange Campaign, comprised of more than 200 organizations, artists and musicians.
“It was a terrific event with over 150 people participating,” DeLuca told the News-Record. “Hopefully our effort, along with hundreds across the country, will convince our Washington, D.C., lawmakers to do something soon that will dramatically reduce gun violence. I thank Rachel Fisher for her leadership in organizing the rally and Moms Demand Action – Maplewood/South Orange group for their consistent advocacy for common-sense gun laws. I intend to work with Mayors Against Illegal Guns to keep this issue on the front burner in our nation’s capital and in Trenton.”
Photos by Dennis Brady