HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — National Gun Violence Awareness Day kicked off the weekend as dozens of people took to downtown Tampa.
"This is my nephew Elijah. He died at 18 years old," Jeannie Robinson,
Gun violence… that's what Jeannie Robinson said killed her nephew.
"Someone accused him and his best friend, who also died that day, of taking a gun. And ill never forget October 16, 2020, I called for my brother. This is his only son, that the tragedy has happened.
Robinson said it doesn't get easier. She told us tragedies won't stop, so awareness needs to continue.
"It's nonsense that he didn't get to have any of his dreams come true at 18 years old. That we can do better as a society. That all of us are in this together," Robinson explained.
It's why dozens of people marched together along the Riverwalk in Tampa as they wore orange.
"It's really an awareness campaign. So we wear orange to demand a future free of gun violence... Tampa, we are not immune to gun violence. In fact, our gun violence has been trending up," Nicole Wass, volunteer leader with Moms Demand Action, said.
About eight-in-tenU.S. Murders in 2021 – 20,958 out of 26,031, or 81% – involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records.
The CDC also said in 2020, firearm-related injuries were among the five leading causes of death for people ages 1-44 in the united states.
Putting the guns down and fighting for an end to gun violence is what Robinson said she'd continue to do year after year.
"When it hits your family, it hits hard," Robinson added.
