A fresh wave of youthful political leaders is ascending to office across the United States by leveraging their personal experience with gun violence to push for policy changes they contend the public is ready for.
Their ascent marks a nearly decade-long shift. Firearms safety has moved from a third-rail issue rarely spoken about on the stump to a core issue that candidates, mostly from the Democratic party, are now campaigning on successfully.
A Collective Exhaustion Fuels the Change
This change is fueled in part by a national weariness with firearms deaths, including large-scale attacks – such as recent incidents at Brown University and Bondi Beach – as well as firearms suicides and community violence, which persist in devastating too many families and communities.
“It’s been an issue that has impacted my life,” explained a Tennessee state representative. “Serving as a state representative and witnessing a lack of action, while remembering the impact in my community, that compelled me to say this is an issue we must address urgently.”
Ironically, the day he was took office coincided with the most lethal attack in the state’s history, when three children and three adults were murdered at a Nashville school.
From Protest to Prominence
Days later, he and two other state Democrats led a protest on the house floor to demand stricter firearms laws. The lawmakers were expelled for their action, an act that propelled them to widespread recognition. They eventually were reinstated.
Subsequently, his sibling died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This was far from his only encounter with tragic death; previously, his mentor and a former classmate were also shot and killed in Memphis.
Now, Pearson is running for a federal office by placing gun violence at the heart of his campaign platform. He highlights how it impacts the state’s young residents, for whom gunshot wounds are the primary killer.
A Movement Becomes a Pipeline
The rise of candidates focusing on this issue is also a product of the expanding advocacy network across the nation, which has evolved into a recruitment channel for new candidates.
- Maxwell Frost, the country’s first Gen Z US representative, started off as a activist with a student-led gun-safety group.
- 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 survivor who helped to organize national marches, has declared his own campaign for Congress.
“I see myself as a piece of a bigger movement. It’s the reason I got into politics,” said Frost. “I was 15 when Sandy Hook happened and that’s what pushed me to get involved.”
From Third Rail to Talking Point
Today, challenging gun-rights lobbyists like the NRA is common among Democratic candidates. But in the recent past, many centrist politicians held ‘A’ grades from the organization, and the topic of gun control was considered a career-ending issue.
“It was a slow process and full of ups and downs,” explained a violence-prevention activist. “We saw our supporters seeking election and thought it was logical that someone shaping legislation would want to take the next step.”
Advocates cite the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy and the subsequent failure in Washington to pass gun-safety policies as a watershed moment. This pushed formerly gun-friendly Democrats to risk their high ratings to support limits on assault weapons. Now, having an F rating from the group 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 gun violence has also mobilized first-time entrants to politics.
Shaundelle Brooks lost her son in a Waffle House attack in Nashville. Tragically, another son was shot and injured leaving a concert. After years of pleading at the capitol with no response, she decided 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 more than what I was doing,” Brooks said.
“When people see you’re directly affected, they feel that you’re more authentic to talk about this. They know it’s not a partisan game for us,” she stated.
‘It’s Our Turn’ to Lead
These personal experiences of tragedy unite advocates across the nation, forming what victims and survivors describe as a “club no one wants to join.”
“We don’t have a formal network, but we all feel called in this moment to be a part of the solution,” Pearson said of his fellow advocates. “The world is riddled with entrenched problems. We’ve given people decades to solve them. And now, with our constituents’ support, the moment is ours.”
Pearson believes that addressing gun violence also requires focusing on bipartisan issues like veteran suicides and housing security, which might find greater support even in conservative legislatures. This broader view shows that being focused on ending firearms tragedies isn’t solely concerning gun laws, but also about addressing the underlying conditions.
“We’re not one-dimensional politicians,” he said. “We understand the connected nature of the problems. It’s not just gun violence. It’s poverty, environmental issues, neglected neighborhoods – these are the places with the highest levels of violence. We need leaders who have experienced that pain.”
In the end, Pearson says inaction at the federal level on policies like extreme risk protection orders and waiting periods has real consequences.
“Because of that inaction, people are dying,” he said. “This crisis won’t be fixed by repeating old strategies.”
