White flowers dot National Mall for gun violence memorial

April 13 (UPI) -- A gun control organization co-founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords placed 40,000 white silk flowers on the National Mall on Tuesday to memorialize those killed by gun violence each year in the United States.

The Giffords organization says the Gun Violence Memorial acts as a call on Congress to enact gun control legislation. The installation will be in place through Friday.

"Too many Americans have lost a loved one to gun violence.We've placed nearly 40,000 flowers outside the Capitol -- one for each person shot and killed every year," Gabrielle Giffords tweeted.

She became heavily involved in gun control activism after she was shot and severely injured in the head in 2011 while speaking at an event outside an Arizona supermarket.

Giffords is pressuring the Senate to pass legislation enacting universal background checks, addressing the so-called Charleston loophole, which allows a gun sale to proceed if a background check is inconclusive after three days, and preventing abusive partners from accessing guns. The House passed such legislation in March.

President Joe Biden, who called gun violence a "public health crisis" in the United States, signed several executive actions last week to tamp down on "ghost guns" made from kits, and supporting "red flag" laws, among other directives.