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US athletes, stars wear orange to stop gun violence

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Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton holds a picture of her daughter Hadiya at a gathering of gun violence victims and gun control advocates on December 14, 2013 in Chicago (AFP Photo/Scott Olson)

New York (AFP) - Americans ranging from pop stars to politicians to the New York Mets baseball team wore orange Tuesday in a new national campaign to stop gun violence.

Activists chose orange -- the color won by hunters to alert others to their presence -- as the official hue of the event, symbolizing the value of human life.

The first-of-a-kind National Gun Violence Awareness Day marked what would have been the 18th birthday of Hadiya Pendleton, a girl shot dead in a Chicago park in 2013 days after performing in a parade in Washington as part of President Barack Obama's second inauguration.