WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — National Gun Violence Awareness Day is paired with "Wear Orange Weekend" to honor the victims and demand change to prevent another mass shooting.
The Palm Beach County event to end gun violence was supposed to take place on Saturday, but it was canceled ahead of the possible tropical storm.
But of course, conversations will continue here in South Florida and nationwide about the unforgiving consequences of gun violence.
It has been 10 days since 19 children and two teachers were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
A few days before that mass shooting, a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
"The horrors in Buffalo and Uvalde are fresh in our minds," Wynna Dunmyer of Florida Moms Demand Action said. "We have to stand up. We have to demand change."
She was stunned after seeing dozens of innocent lives lost yet again.
"It's horrible and devastating and frightening," Dunmyer said. "We are generating a country of gun violence survivors at this rate."
"I'm in physical pain for what they're going through right now," Tom Hoyer, who lost his son, Luke, in the Parkland school shooting, said.
Every day during the jury selection for the Parkland gunman's sentencing, Hoyer is in the Broward County courtroom.
"I know what the families are going through. That their child is laying in a school on the floor. It's heartbreaking, just heartbreaking," Hoyer said. "Those families are starting this harrowing journey and we might be getting closer to the end of ours."
The uncomfortable glare of this moment may pass in time — even if the pain for the families does not.
Hoyer said the best way to support families affected by gun violence is to show up for the vigils, demonstrations and to stay engaged about the situation.
Moms Demand Action also said they are ramping up calls for Congress to take on gun control legislation.
