A convention of mayors from across the country were reminded of their mortality on Thursday when Vice President Kamala Harris dropped a truth bomb: that today’s 18-year-olds weren’t just born after Sept. 11, 2001 — but born in 2005, the same year that President George W. Bush began his second term in office.
And, in doing so, Harris insisted to the elected officials of today that the next generation will demand change — if they aren’t demanding it already.
"Because I think so many older adults don't really understand what our children, the children of our community, have been going through," Harris said in conversation with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, before the attendees of the 2024 United States Conference of Mayors.
The vice president's event on Thursday was billed as a discussion focused on gun violence prevention, but young people were regularly a touchstone of her conversation. Last year, Harris set out on a tour of college campuses to discuss the White House’s civil rights agenda. Reproductive rights, voting rights, climate change and racial inequities have featured prominently in the discussions.
"Think about it. For this generation of what I call 'young leaders,' they’ve only known the climate crisis — in fact, they’ve coined a term, 'climate anxiety,' to describe their fears about having children or buying a home for fear that it may be destroyed because of extreme climate incidents. They witnessed George Floyd being killed. They endured a historic pandemic where they also lost significant phases of their educational process," Harris said.
And nearly every single one of the students in her talks, when asked, said that they had participated in active shooter drills at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade.
"They are acutely aware of what we know, which is that gun violence is the leading cause of death of the children of America…not car accidents, not some form of cancer, gun violence. One in five Americans has a family member that was killed as a result of gun violence," Harris said.
"I’m in favor of the Second Amendment. But is it not reasonable that we would have an assault weapons ban, understanding that assault weapons were literally designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly, and our weapons of war with no place on the streets of a civil society," she added.
Local leaders, she said, must work to address not just gun violence, but its effects and its underlying causes, beginning with expanded mental health services.
"The convening power of mayors is extraordinary…you as mayors have the power to convene not only the community-based providers, but the folks from city agencies, folks from law enforcement, and to create these conversations where invariably ideas will come form and plans can be hatched," Harris said.
Harris cited Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Vi Lyles, who, along with the vice president, convened a group of community leaders — teachers, school board members, mental health providers and parents of children killed by gun violence.
Charlotte was the site of Harris’s announcement last week that the federal government will budget $285 million to hire and train school counselors across the country.
"I think there's so much about the challenges that we face as a nation that end up being minimized through the political discourse in a way that really is about politics more than it is substance or policy," Harris said. "Because of what you need to accomplish each day and your voices are so credible and important to amplify the appearances of your constituents. And I know it's not easy to do, but it is very important when you do it."