HOLYOKE — Lyn Horan’s 71-year-old mother, Carolyn Lyons, once dated a 78-year-old man. When Lyons learned he was married, she ended the relationship.

“I don’t date married men,” she told him.

After making threats, the schizophrenic man showed up at Lyons’ door with a gun. He pressed it to her head and pulled the trigger. The gun malfunctioned, so he beat her with it instead.

After returning home to repair the weapon, he sought out another woman who had rejected him — Lyons’ friend, June Maxwell, who lived in the same apartment building. This time, the gun worked. Maxwell was killed.

Though Lyons survived and lived another decade, Horan said the shooting’s impact had rippling effects.

“My mother lived with that guilt all her remaining years — we got to have her 10 more years, but June’s family was not as lucky as that,” said Horan, a Holyoke resident, emphasizing that anyone at any age can be a victim of gun violence. “Her granddaughter tried to kill herself after she heard that her grandmother had been killed, and that was because the last words she had with her grandmother was an argument. These things go on forever.”

That enduring trauma — not only for victims, but also for families, friends and entire communities — was the focus of an annual vigil on the lawn of City Hall on Wednesday ahead of Gun Violence Prevention Weekend. Many participants wore orange, the color for gun-violence victims advocacy.

Speakers noted that about 130 people are killed by gun violence each day in the United States — a number far higher than any other developed country — but emphasized that the consequences reach far beyond those deaths, shattering entire communities.

City Councilor Anne Thalheimer lost her professor during a mass shooting in Great Barrington when she was attending college. Trauma still haunts her more than 30 years later.

Councilor Israel Rivera lost his brother-in-law, Dexter Ortiz, to guns. Rivera and his family attended the vigil wearing T-shirts with the picture and name of Ortiz. Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos lost a dear friend of his, KJ Morris, who was one of 58 people killed in 2016 during the Pulse gay night club shooting in Orlando, Florida.

Holyoke itself has had its own struggles with gun violence. Three years ago, a pregnant woman was shot on a bus in 2023, and two other alleged murders took place earlier this year, including the death of an Easthampton man.

Rivera honed in on the local reality, and shared one of his earliest memories as a 6 year old.

“Someone pulled up to the corner and pulled out a Tech-9 and started shooting at the house down the street,” said Rivera, saying that young people in particular enter gangs as a way to find community.

The impact is that teachers lose students, coaches lose their athletes, and families and everyone close to them feel the impacts of the bullet throughout their lives, said Rivera.

While Massachusetts has some of the strongest gun laws in the country and the lowest rate of gun deaths, Mayor Joshua Garcia also highlighted the need to do more and to educate children.

“Please talk to your children about guns. Talk to them about the dangers of firearms. Teach them what to do if they encounter a gun. Have an honest conversation about peer pressure and conflict resolution and mental health and the consequences of violence,” said Garcia.