Rays Donate $50K to Everytown for Gun Safety After Buffalo, Uvalde Shootings

The Tampa Bay Rays are helping in the efforts to curb gun violence in the United States.

Ahead of Thursday's game against the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay announced it donated $50,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety's support fund, which it explained "is the largest gun violence prevention organization in America."

The statement also said, "We all deserve to be safe in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, our neighborhoods, houses and America. … This cannot become normal. We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes."

The Rays' Twitter header is an image with the words "end gun violence."

Both teams announced they will use their social media pages to provide facts about gun violence during the game:

Tampa Bay's donation comes after a shooter killed 10 people at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, and another killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.

Following Tuesday's violence, Ryan Bergeron of CNN noted "there have been more mass shootings than days in the year" in the U.S. in 2022.