‘The Time Has Come’: Gun-Safety Advocates Ride a ‘Tectonic’ Wave into American Legislatures.

A fresh wave of young elected officials is gaining power across the nation by leveraging their firsthand encounters with gun violence to push for policy changes they believe the public is ready for.

Their ascent signifies a nearly decade-long shift. Firearms safety has moved from a political taboo rarely spoken about on campaign trails to a core issue that candidates, mostly from the Democratic party, are now running – and winning – on.

Widespread Fatigue Fuels the Change

This change is fueled in part by a national weariness with firearms deaths, including mass shootings – like tragedies at a Rhode Island university and a Sydney beach – as well as gun-related suicides and community violence, which persist in devastating countless families and communities.

“It’s been an issue that has impacted my life,” said a Tennessee state representative. “Serving as a legislator and seeing government inaction, while remembering the effects in my neighborhood, that compelled me to say this is an issue we must prioritize.”

The day he was took office coincided with the most lethal attack in the state’s history, when six individuals were murdered at a Nashville private school.

From Protest to Prominence

Days later, he and two other state Democrats staged a demonstration on the legislative chamber to call for stricter firearms laws. The lawmakers were removed from office for their action, an act that catapulted them to widespread recognition. They eventually reclaimed their seats.

Months later, Pearson’s brother was lost to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This was not his first experience with tragic death; just years before, his guide and a former classmate were also fatally shot in his hometown.

Now, he is campaigning for a seat in the US Congress by placing gun violence at the core of his agenda. He highlights how it affects the state’s young residents, for whom firearms injuries are the leading cause of death.

From Activism to Candidacy

The emergence of candidates focusing on gun violence is also a result of the growing prevention movement across the country, which has evolved into a pipeline for new candidates.

• Maxwell Frost, the country’s first Generation Z congressmember, began as a activist with March for Our Lives.
• Lucy McBath, a Georgia representative, and Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia governor-elect, were both involved with Moms Demand Action before running for office.
• Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor who was instrumental in national marches, has declared his own run for Congress.

“I see myself as a small part of a larger cause. It’s the reason I got into politics,” said Frost. “I was 15 when the Newtown tragedy happened and that’s what pushed me to get involved.”

From Third Rail to Talking Point

Nowadays, calling out pro-gun groups like the NRA is standard practice among Democrats. But in the recent past, many moderate Democrats held high ratings from the organization, and the subject of regulating guns was considered a political third rail.

“It was a slow process and not linear,” explained a prominent advocate. “We saw our supporters seeking election and thought it was common sense that someone shaping legislation would want to become a lawmaker.”

Advocates cite the 2012 mass shooting and the subsequent failure in Congress to pass reforms as a turning point. This led once NRA-backed politicians to abandon their high ratings to call for restrictions on high-capacity magazines. Now, having an F rating from the group is a point of pride.

“After the Florida school shooting, zero Democratic members of Congress had an A rating and were boasting of it. That’s a seismic shift,” the activist continued. “It dispelled a lot of myths and fears about being gun safety-forward.”

From Grieving Parent to Candidate

The issue of firearms deaths has also mobilized first-time entrants to public service.

A Tennessee mother lost her son in a 2018 mass shooting in Nashville. Years later, another son was shot and injured leaving a music venue. After repeated trips of pleading at the capitol with little result, she chose to become a candidate herself.

“Coming up here for seven years and having them just ignoring me, made it clear that I needed to do something greater than what I was doing,” she said.

“Knowing you’re directly affected, they feel that you’re more authentic to talk about this. They know it’s not a political thing for us,” she stated.

A New Generation’s Call

These shared stories of loss connect advocates across the nation, forming what victims and survivors describe as a “group no one wants to join.”

“We don’t have a formal network, but we all feel compelled in this time to be a part of the healing,” the representative said of his fellow advocates. “The world is riddled with entrenched problems. We’ve given people generations to solve them. And now, with our constituents’ support, it’s our turn.”

Pearson believes that tackling gun violence also requires action on bipartisan issues like veteran suicides and housing security, which might find greater support even in Republican-led legislatures. This holistic approach shows that being committed to ending gun violence isn’t solely concerning gun laws, but also about improving the underlying conditions.

“We’re not single-issue candidates,” he said. “We understand the intersectionality of the harms. It’s not just gun violence. It’s economic hardship, pollution, deprived communities – these are the places with the most severe rates of violence. We need leaders who have experienced that reality.”

In the end, the candidate says a lack of movement at the national level on measures like red flag laws and cooling-off periods has real consequences.

“Due to this stagnation, people are dying,” he said. “This crisis isn’t going to be solved by repeating old strategies.”