Gun Control and the 2024 Election: Young Voters Are Mobilizing Around the Issue in Georgia and Beyond

(Originally posted on Teen Vogue on October 25, 2024)

Students at Georgia State University’s watch party for the September presidential debate joked about custom bingo cards for the evening and dined on cupcakes. They paid attention to what the candidates said about key issues for young voters, such as the economy and abortion. But multiple students throughout the room wanted Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to speak about another issue that had recently affected their community: gun violence.

On September 4, just days before the debate, a 14-year-old killed four people and wounded nine others in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, an hour outside of GSU’s campus in Atlanta.

Jada E., a 22-year-old GSU student who asked to withhold her last name to protect her privacy, says she wanted answers on gun control “given the massacre that just happened,” adding, “I want them to reinstate that they will do something and what they will do.” Her siblings attend high school in Atlanta, she noted.

Young voters see gun control as a pressing issue for November and are looking for candidates with solutions to gun-related deaths. In Georgia, the Apalachee shooting has reinvigorated concerns about the state's gun policies and activist organizations have mobilized on the issue, pushing students to protest for gun control initiatives and to get out the vote.

The presidential race presents young voters with two vastly different policy agendas for gun ownership. Trump, who is endorsed by the National Rifle Association, has repeatedly claimed that Democrats would take away people’s firearms and has framed himself as a defender of gun rights. Even after two apparent assassination attempts and increasing concerns about his safety, Trump hasn’t reversed his pro-gun policies, and he plans to roll back Biden-era gun restrictions.

Harris, on the other hand, supports universal background checks, banning assault weapons, and other measures to control the sale of firearms. It seems she has tried to position herself as a moderate on the issue, pointing out that both she and her running mate Tim Walz own firearms.

Younger voters are more likely to side with Harris on gun policy. Sixty-two percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 think the US should have stricter gun laws, according to a 2024 poll from the Pew Research Center.

Since the start of 2024, there have been more than 430 mass shootings nationwide, leaving over 425 people dead and 1,900 injured, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. This includes the Apalachee High School shooting, which has sparked outrage among state Democrats frustrated with Georgia’s relaxed gun laws, according to CNN. CNN also reported that the 14-year-old gunman was allegedly able to obtain an AR-15-style firearm from his father. Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed the Constitutional Carry Act in 2022, which enshrined permitless carry in the state.

Representative Michelle Au (D-GA) has proposed gun storage bills to incentivize owners to store their firearms so that children can’t reach them. Firearms are the leading cause of death in children and teens, and data from the CDC indicates that safe storage could reduce this. But these bills have been stuck in limbo since the Republican majority in the state house won’t consider them. “It should not be a partisan issue," Au tells Teen Vogue. "It should be a public health issue, just like we approach other causes of death and injury in kids and teenagers.”

Gun control organizations like Georgia Majority for Gun Safety have also been trying to position gun safety issues as bipartisan, and the US Surgeon General has declared gun violence a public health crisis.

Other key swing states also have mixed policies on safe storage. According to data from Everytown Research and Policy, North Carolina and Michigan have safe storage legislation, but Pennsylvania and Arizona do not.

Youth-led advocacy organization March for Our Lives is working to mobilize students in these swing states to vote for gun control candidates. The 2024 cycle represents the first time that the gun safety organization has endorsed candidates, and it is working to elect Harris and congressional Democrats in states like Michigan and Florida, heralding them as “gun safety champions.”

March for Our Lives plans to hold Harris accountable for her proposed policies, says spokesperson Mikah Rector-Brooks: “She oversees the Office of Gun Violence Prevention itself and has worked with survivors, with March for Our Lives ourselves, and really champions this issue and cares deeply about it.”

March for Our Lives worked with the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition (GYJC) and Change for Chee, an advocacy group formed after the Apalachee High shooting, to coordinate some local protests and organizing efforts advocating for gun violence prevention. Student activists also organized a statewide walkout involving thousands of students across more than 30 high schools.

During a GYJC rally on September 20, state Democrats and activists lambasted Republican lawmakers for opposing gun control efforts. “They won't even let us have a conversation about it," said Representative Jasmine Clark (D-GA). "They won't hold a hearing. They won't let us debate it. They don't want to even talk about it.”

Student activists and gun violence survivors have pointed to their trauma for how it informs their organizing work and voting. One student, Nzinga Sombo, says she knew a victim of the Apalachee shooting and that the issue has been top of mind for her. Elliot Horton, an organizer and second-year Oglethorpe University student, says her memories of running to safety after a gun was spotted at a high school game brought the issue front and center.

Horton has thrown herself into working with the GYJC and emphasizes that young people should continue pushing the issue. “There are things that we can do," she says. "They might not be immediate or the most effective things, but we have to fight like hell.”

LaDeija Kimbrough is leading the effort to create a chapter of Students Demand Action — the student arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control nonprofit — at Clark Atlanta University. She’s lost people close to her to gun violence throughout the years, including her friend Jatonne Sterling, who was shot in a parking lot near campus in 2023. Kimbrough has been hosting sessions on campus to drum up support for her burgeoning chapter.

Horton and Kimbrough say they have other primary reasons for supporting Harris, but that her gun policies reaffirmed their decision. “Harris and Walz are battle-tested when it comes to fighting for gun violence prevention,” says Kimbrough.

Even high schoolers are looking at the gun policies of candidates to see who they might vote for in 2028. “Whoever gets elected in November will be my president for the first four years of my adult life, and it's something that I care about," says Saif Hasan, a 17-year-old Lambert High School senior who organized the school’s walkout. "Why wouldn't I try to build my own future?”