The Obama administration will leave a gallery seat empty during Tuesday’s State of the Union address in honor of gun-violence victims.
The move was announced during a conference call President Obama participated in Friday with more than “20,000 grassroots supporters” of tightening gun laws, a White House official stated.
The empty seat will be in first lady Michelle Obama’s guest box.
The gesture symbolizes those who were killed by guns and “no longer have a voice” and now need “the rest of us to speak for them; to tell their stories; to honor their memory,” the official stated.
The announcement comes after Obama issued 10 executive orders on Tuesday strengthening existing gun laws, and held a town hall meeting on CNN on Thursday to highlight the issue and try to prod lawmakers to enact his proposals to further restrict who and how guns can be bought and owned.
The empty seat should “remind every single one of our representatives that it’s their responsibility to do something about this,” the White House official added.
