Washington, DC — This week, Giffords will bring its Gun Violence Memorial to San Francisco in commemoration of the thousands of lives lost to gun violence every year. Tomorrow, May 3rd at 10am Pacific time, Giffords will host a press conference in which Mayor London Breed; former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords; Lynette McElhaney, a former member of the Oakland City Council who lost her son to gun violence; Scott Schell, Program Manager at Resolve to Stop the Violence Project; Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler; and Giffords Law Center Executive Director Robyn Thomas are scheduled to speak.
The memorial will be located in Sue Bierman Park and will feature 3,449 vases—one for every Californian who died from gun violence in 2020. The memorial follows a national installation Giffords unveiled last year in Washington DC. The National Mall was covered in 40,000 flowers representing Americans who die from gun violence each year. Giffords kicked off the Gun Violence Memorial regional tour with a stop in Philadelphia in August and continued the tour in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston.
