PINE BLUFF, Ark. — On Friday, members of the Pine Bluff community met at the Pine Bluff Convention Center for National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
The event was an equal parts celebration, commemoration and education.
The celebration was because Pine Bluff has gone 147 days without a child dying due to gun violence, while the commemoration was to remember all those in the city who lost their lives to gun violence.
Event leaders aimed to educate people on how to stop gun violence in their communities.
"We're tired of losing young people and adults to gun violence, and we're taking a stand,” said Earnest Brown, a member of the Group Violence Intervention executive committee.
The Pine Bluff Group Violence Intervention (GVI) was the one who put on the event.
Attendees wore orange to symbolize the nationwide effort to fight gun violence.
"We wanted to paint the city, essentially, orange,” GVI Vice Chairman Lafayette Woods said.
The event also featured a guest speaker, rapper Lil’ Scrappy, who spoke about how gun violence affects communities.
Brown said he wants Pine Bluff to be a place where this kind of violence is a thing of the past.
"To say that you can be safe, you can raise a family, you can get a quality education and community,” Brown said.
To accomplish this, GVI uses many different strategies.
Woods, who also serves as the Jefferson County sheriff, said one of the most important things to do is reach individuals before they commit acts like this.
"Particularly our youth," Woods said. "Reaching them where they are, showing them there's a different route, there's a different way, there's a better way."
Woods stressed that the GVI wants to have more events like this to raise awareness of the problem and give resources to those who have been affected by gun violence.