GENEVA COUNTY, Ala. (WDHN) — As president of the Geneva County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Reverand James Ruttlen has spearheaded a rally in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
On Saturday, the rally will begin at 11:00 a.m. on the steps of the Geneva County Courthouse.
Thus far in 2023, there have already been more than 200 documented cases of mass shootings nationwide.
Fourteen years ago in Samson, a gunman would kill nine people before taking his own life. One of the rally speakers has a direct tie to the massacre.
“One out of every ten shootings has kids involved as well as toddlers and infants. Now we talk about mass shootings, but there’s also suicide, things that happen in the family. There are a lot of shootings that’s happening in our country and they need to stop and the time to act is now,” Reverand Ruttlen says.
Those at the rally are being asked to wear orange shirts and there’s a significance behind that. People are asked to wear orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to tell fellow hunters not to shoot them.
“The color represents when hunters go into the woods they wear orange to protect themselves and others and this is how it comes about. And we’re asking everybody if you don’t have anything going on tomorrow, to come out to the Geneva County Courthouse as we rally against gun violence,” Ruttlen states.
Ruttlen says gun violence is a public health emergency and we each have a role in ending it.
In addition to the Geneva Gun Violence Awareness Day Rally on Saturday at the courthouse at 11:00 a.m.
A second event in the Wiregrass will take place on the Andalusia Downtown Square at 3:00 p.m.
