Silver State Times

Gov. Steve Sisolak was expected to be at the “Wear Orange” event on Friday hosted by gun safety advocates for National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Organizers of the event expected hundreds of attendees, a recent FOX5 Vegas report said.

The event at Lorenzi Park was being spearheaded by Nevada Moms Demand Action, who are among the many organizations expected to highlight gun violence throughout the country.

“In the wake of several tragedies, the fight to end gun violence has never been more urgent,” Sisolak said on Twitter recently. “On National Gun Violence Awareness Day we honor victims and survivors of gun violence and renew our commitment to ending this crisis.”

The event was particularly poignant for Clark County School District Board of Director Linda Cavazos, who has experienced gun violence first hand.

“I lost my brother, my younger brother many years ago to suicide with a gun,” she told FOX5. “It was not a gun that belonged to him. Like so many other suicides with a firearm in our country I really feel like if he had not had access to that gun he might still be here with us here today.

“I was the only one out of everybody in our family that was willing to go to therapy and so I did. I joined a survivor support group, the help that I got there and the commonality that I got with people who also lost spouses or children, or siblings, friends is what really helped me make my the decision to change careers.”

Cavazos was a high school teacher when she lost her brother, but she later became a family therapist. She has been with Moms Demand Action since 2013.