Emhoff to attend Washington Mystics game for gun violence awareness

Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff is set to attend a Washington Mystics game Friday to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Emhoff will be attending the game at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where the Mystics will take on WNBA star Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.

National Gun Violence Awareness Day is an annual event on the first Friday in June and marks the beginning of “Wear Orange Weekend.”

The weekend commemorates Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago. It began with her friends honoring Pendleton in 2015 and has grown in the years since.

“Now, Wear Orange honors Hadiya and the more than 120 people shot and killed every day in the United States, as well as the hundreds more who are shot and wounded and the countless others who are traumatized by acts of gun violence,” the Mystics said in an announcement.

In 2023, Emhoff participated in the Mystics’ youth basketball clinic with Washington-area children and survivors of gun violence.

The Mystics encouraged fans to wear orange to Friday’s game.