‘The Time Has Come’: Firearms-Safety Activists Surf a ‘Tectonic’ Surge into US Statehouses.

A fresh wave of youthful political leaders is ascending to office across the United States by leveraging their personal experience with gun violence to advocate for policy changes they contend the public is demanding.

Their rise signifies a multi-year transformation. Gun violence prevention has moved from a political taboo rarely spoken about on campaign trails to a core issue that politicians, predominantly Democrats, are now campaigning on successfully.

Widespread Fatigue Drives the Change

This evolution is driven partly by a collective exhaustion with gun violence, including large-scale attacks – such as recent incidents at Brown University and a Sydney beach – as well as firearms suicides and street violence, which persist in devastating countless American lives.

“This is a problem that has directly touched me,” said a Tennessee state representative. “There was something about a state representative and witnessing government inaction, while remembering the impact in my neighborhood, that compelled me to say this is an issue we must prioritize.”

Ironically, the day he was sworn in was also the deadliest shooting in the state’s history, when three children and three adults were shot and killed at a Covenant private school.

From Protest to Prominence

Days later, he and several state Democrats staged a demonstration on the house floor to demand stricter firearms laws. Pearson and his colleague were expelled for their protest, an act that propelled them to widespread recognition. They eventually were reinstated.

Months later, his sibling was lost to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This was far from his only experience with violent loss; previously, his mentor and a former classmate were also fatally shot in his hometown.

Now, Pearson is running for a federal office by placing firearms safety at the core of his campaign platform. He emphasizes how it impacts the state’s youth, for whom gunshot wounds are the leading cause of death.

From Activism to Candidacy

The rise of candidates centering gun violence is also a product of the growing prevention movement across the country, which has evolved into a recruitment channel for new candidates.

• Maxwell Frost, the country’s first Generation Z US representative, started off as a volunteer with March for Our Lives.
• Lucy McBath, a Congresswoman, and Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia governor-elect, were both volunteers with a grassroots safety organization before running for office.
• Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor who was instrumental in national marches, has recently announced his own campaign for Congress.

“I see myself as a piece of a bigger movement. It’s the driving force I got into politics,” said the congressman. “I was 15 when Sandy Hook happened and that’s what inspired me to get involved.”

A Seismic Shift in Politics

Today, challenging pro-gun groups like the NRA is common among Democrats. But in the recent past, many centrist politicians held high ratings from the organization, and the topic of regulating guns was considered a political third rail.

“It was gradual and full of ups and downs,” explained a violence-prevention activist. “We saw our supporters running for office and thought it was logical that someone advocating for laws would want to take the next step.”

Many point to the 2012 mass shooting and the lack of action in Congress to pass gun-safety policies as a turning point. This pushed formerly gun-friendly Democrats to abandon their favorable scores to support limits on high-capacity magazines. Now, receiving a poor grade from the NRA is a badge of honor.

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

From Grieving Parent to Candidate

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

A Tennessee mother lost her son in a Waffle House attack in Nashville. Years later, another son was shot and injured leaving a concert. After years of advocating at the capitol with little result, she chose to become a candidate herself.

“Coming up here for years and having them just ignoring me, showed me that I needed to do something greater than what I was doing,” Brooks said.

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

‘It’s Our Turn’ to Lead

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

“We don’t have a group chat, but we all feel called in this moment to be a part of the solution,” the representative said of his fellow advocates. “The world is full of seemingly unsolvable issues. We’ve given people decades to solve them. And now, with our the people behind us, the moment is ours.”

He believes that addressing gun violence also requires action on bipartisan issues like veteran suicides and housing security, which might find more traction even in conservative legislatures. This holistic approach shows that being focused on ending gun violence isn’t solely concerning gun laws, but also about addressing the underlying conditions.

“We’re not single-issue candidates,” he emphasized. “We understand the intersectionality of the problems. It’s not just gun violence. It’s poverty, environmental issues, neglected neighborhoods – 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 federal level on policies like extreme risk protection orders and waiting periods has deadly outcomes.

“Due to this stagnation, people are dying,” he said. “This problem won’t be fixed by doing what we’ve done in the past.”