Navy is nice, but a few New England Patriots players opted for orange attire on Saturday to support a great cause.
The event was part of Wear Orange Weekend and National Gun Violence Awareness Day, with veterans Ja'Whaun Bentley, Josh Uche, Ty Montgomery, and Anfernee Jennings joined by retired player Devin McCourty and Patriots rookies Chad Ryland, Sidy Sow, Malik Cunningham, and Demario Douglas in Roxbury.
According to the gun violence archive, nearly 18,000 died of gun violence in the United States in 2023 alone.
The national crisis has certainly touched Boston communities.
Of the more than 1,700 shootings logged across the city since 2015, nearly three-quarters occurred in either Roxbury, Dorchester, or Mattapan, per Boston Police Department data.
This weekend's events served to raise awareness about the current gun violence epidemic and inspire a wave of action to fix the issue.
Wear Orange Weekend launched for the first time in 2015 to honor Hadiya Pendelton, a 15-year-old girl who was shot and killed at a playground in Chicago when the friends she was standing with were mistaken for members of a rival gang.
After the unthinkable tragedy, Pendelton's friends honored her by wearing orange, and now, with Wear Orange Weekend observed every June, her legacy lives on.
