Growing Into Leadership After Growing Up With Shootings – By Susan Milligan (US News) / Nov 28, 2022
A generation that grew up doing active shooter drills is now old enough to run for office. And gun control is a top priority.
Nabeela Syed was in third grade when a police officer came to her classroom door, jangling the doorknob to test how the young students would respond to a potential gunman trying to enter the room.
Now 23, Syed keeps that wrenching memory in her head as she embarks on her new role as a member of the Illinois state legislature following her election earlier this month. After a series of shootings in schools, parades, concerts, LGBTQ nightclubs and – tragically last week, at a Walmart in Virginia – the Democrat is eager to vote for gun safety laws.
“We are the generation that grew up doing active shooter drills,” Syed says about Gen Z, the moniker for those born in 1997 and afterward. “Sometimes it’s frustrating, being a younger person and feeling like we’ve been crying out for this, and feeling unheard.”
This midterm election, advocates for tighter gun restrictions feel finally heard, with hundreds of their volunteers and endorsed candidates elected up and down the ticket.
