In Washington, D.C., gun control advocates placed 40,000 silk flowers on the National Mall Wednesday to mark the number of U.S. residents who die by shootings each year. The memorial was unveiled by Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived a gunshot to the head during a mass shooting in Tucson in 2011.

Gabby Giffords: “Today I struggle to speak, but I’ve not lost my voice. America needs all of us to speak out. … We are at a crossroads. We can let the shooting continue, or we can act. We can protect our families, our future.”

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords’s husband is the new senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly. As the Gun Violence Memorial was unveiled Wednesday, Virginia’s state Senate voted to reject Governor Ralph Northam’s amendment to a bill that would bar anyone convicted of assaulting a family member or housemate from owning or transporting firearms for three years. The governor wanted to raise the probationary period to five years.