‘Now Is Our Moment’: Firearms-Safety Activists Surf a ‘Seismic’ Wave into American Legislatures.

A fresh wave of young elected officials is gaining power across the nation by channeling their personal experience with gun violence to push for reforms they believe the country is ready for.

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

Widespread Fatigue Fuels the Shift

This evolution is driven partly by a national weariness with firearms deaths, encompassing large-scale attacks – like recent incidents at a Rhode Island university and a Sydney beach – as well as firearms suicides and street violence, which continue to tear apart countless American lives.

“This is a problem that has impacted my life,” said a Tennessee state representative. “Serving as a legislator and seeing a lack of action, while remembering the effects in my community, that pushed me to say this is an issue we must address urgently.”

Ironically, the day he was sworn in coincided with the most lethal attack in Tennessee history, when six individuals were murdered at a Nashville private school.

Expulsion and a National Spotlight

Shortly after, he and several state Democrats staged a demonstration on the legislative chamber to call for stronger gun policy. The lawmakers were removed from office for their action, an act that catapulted them to national prominence. They eventually were reinstated.

Subsequently, his sibling died of a firearm suicide. This was far from his only encounter with violent loss; just years before, his guide and a old schoolmate were also shot and killed in Memphis.

Now, Pearson is running for a seat in the US Congress by centering gun violence at the heart of his agenda. He highlights how it impacts the state’s youth, for whom firearms injuries are the primary killer.

From Activism to Candidacy

The rise of office-seekers centering gun violence is also a product of the growing prevention movement across the country, which has become a pipeline for new candidates.

• Maxwell Frost, the country’s first Generation Z congressmember, began 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 survivor who was instrumental in student protests, 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,” noted the congressman. “I was 15 when Sandy Hook happened and that’s what inspired me to get involved.”

A Seismic Shift in Politics

Nowadays, calling out gun-rights lobbyists like the National Rifle Association is standard practice among Democrats. But less than 15 years ago, many centrist politicians held ‘A’ grades from the organization, and the subject of gun control was considered a career-ending issue.

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

Advocates cite the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy and the subsequent failure in Congress to pass gun-safety policies as a watershed moment. This led formerly gun-friendly Democrats to risk their high ratings to call for limits on high-capacity magazines. Now, having an F rating from the NRA is a point of pride.

“After the Florida school shooting, no Democratic members of Congress had an A rating and were proud about it. That’s a seismic shift,” the activist continued. “It shattered a lot of misperceptions and anxieties about being proactive on this issue.”

Personal Loss Fuels Political Action

The issue of gun violence has also mobilized first-time entrants to politics.

A Tennessee mother lost her son in a 2018 mass shooting in the city. Years later, another son was wounded leaving a concert. After years of advocating at the statehouse with no response, she decided to run for office.

“Coming up here for years and having them just dismiss me, showed me 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 shared stories of tragedy unite individuals across the country, forming what those affected describe as a “club 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 healing,” Pearson said of his colleagues. “The world is full of entrenched problems. We’ve given people generations to solve them. And now, with our constituents’ support, the moment is ours.”

Pearson argues that addressing gun violence also requires focusing on bipartisan issues like mental health access and housing security, which might find greater support even in Republican-led legislatures. This broader view shows that being committed to ending gun violence isn’t just about gun laws, but also about addressing the root causes.

“We’re not one-dimensional politicians,” he said. “We understand the intersectionality of the harms. It’s not just gun violence. It’s economic hardship, environmental issues, neglected neighborhoods – these are the places with the most severe rates of violence. We need leaders who have experienced that pain.”

Ultimately, Pearson says inaction at the federal level on policies like red flag laws and cooling-off periods has deadly outcomes.

“Because of that inaction, people are dying,” he stated firmly. “This crisis won’t be fixed by doing what we’ve done in the past.”