Former U.S. congresswoman and gun control advocate Gabby Giffords --who herself suffered a severe brain injury during an assassination attempt in 2011-- opened a temporary memorial for victims of gun violence at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.

The memorial honors the 45,000 lives lost to gun violence in 2020 and calls for action as part of a relentless wave of shootings that has pushed gun violence to the forefront of U.S. politics.

The memorial was originally set-up in April 2021 by Giffords at the National Mall with 40,000 flowers representing the number of Americans who die from gun violence each year.

More than 124 people were killed and 325 wounded in 300-plus shootings documented in the United States since Friday, June 3 according to Gun Violence Archive, a Washington D.C. non-profit that tracks shootings.

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