‘It’s Our Turn’: Gun-Safety Advocates Ride a ‘Tectonic’ Surge into American Statehouses.

A fresh wave of young elected officials is ascending to office across the United States by channeling their firsthand encounters with firearms tragedies to advocate for policy changes they contend the public is demanding.

Their rise marks a nearly decade-long shift. Gun violence prevention has moved from a third-rail issue rarely spoken about on the stump to a core issue that politicians, predominantly Democrats, are now campaigning on successfully.

Widespread Fatigue Fuels the Change

This change is fueled in part by a collective exhaustion with gun violence, including large-scale attacks – such as tragedies at Brown University and Bondi Beach – as well as firearms suicides and community violence, which persist in devastating too many American lives.

“This is a problem that has impacted my life,” explained Justin Pearson. “There was something about a legislator and seeing a lack of action, while remembering the impact in my neighborhood, that compelled me to say this is an issue we must prioritize.”

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

Expulsion and a National Spotlight

Shortly after, he and two other state Democrats staged a demonstration on the legislative chamber to demand stricter firearms laws. Pearson and his colleague were expelled for their protest, an act that propelled them to national prominence. They eventually were reinstated.

Months later, Pearson’s brother was lost to a firearm suicide. This was not his first experience with tragic death; previously, his guide and a old schoolmate were also fatally shot in his hometown.

Now, he is campaigning for a federal office by placing gun violence at the core of his campaign platform. He emphasizes how it impacts the state’s young residents, for whom firearms injuries are the primary killer.

A Movement Becomes a Pipeline

The rise of office-seekers centering gun violence is also a result of the expanding advocacy network across the country, 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 Congresswoman, 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 a House seat.

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

A Seismic Shift in Politics

Nowadays, calling out gun-rights lobbyists like the NRA is common among Democratic candidates. But in the recent past, many moderate Democrats held high ratings from the organization, and the topic of regulating guns was considered a political third rail.

“It was a slow process and full of ups and downs,” said a prominent advocate. “We saw our volunteers seeking election and thought it was logical that someone advocating for laws would want to become a lawmaker.”

Advocates cite the 2012 mass shooting and the lack of action in Washington to pass gun-safety policies as a watershed moment. This pushed once NRA-backed politicians to abandon their high ratings to support limits on assault weapons. Now, having an F rating from the group is a point of pride.

“After Parkland, no Democratic members of Congress had an A rating and were boasting of it. That’s a dramatic change,” the advocate added. “It dispelled a lot of misperceptions and anxieties about being gun safety-forward.”

Personal Loss Fuels Political Action

The epidemic of gun violence has also activated first-time entrants to public service.

Shaundelle Brooks lost her son in a Waffle House attack in Nashville. Years later, another son was shot and injured leaving a music venue. After years of advocating at the statehouse with no response, she chose to become a candidate herself.

“Testifying for seven years and having them just dismiss me, made it clear that I needed to do more than what I was doing,” Brooks said.

“When people see you’re personally impacted, they feel that you’re more authentic to talk about this. They know it’s not a political thing 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 group chat, but we all feel compelled in this time to be a part of the healing,” Pearson said of his fellow advocates. “The world is riddled with seemingly unsolvable issues. We’ve given people decades to address them. And now, with our constituents’ support, the moment is ours.”

Pearson argues that addressing gun violence also requires focusing on bipartisan issues like veteran suicides and economic stability, which might find greater support even in Republican-led legislatures. This holistic approach shows that being committed to ending gun violence isn’t just about restrictions, but also about improving the root causes.

“We’re not one-dimensional politicians,” he said. “We understand the intersectionality of the harms. It’s not just shootings. It’s poverty, pollution, neglected neighborhoods – these are the places with the highest levels of violence. We need leaders who have proximity to that pain.”

In the end, the candidate says inaction at the national level on measures like extreme risk protection orders and waiting periods has deadly outcomes.

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