Illinois’ gun debate: Legislation, litigation and emotion fuel one of the state’s most polarizing conflicts
CHICAGO — Born 10 days before Columbine, 23-year-old Nabeela Syed’s opinion on guns in this country began forming in the third grade.
It was that school year that Syed heard the jiggling of a locked classroom doorknob during her first-ever active shooter drill. On the other side was a local police officer who was there to test the elementary students’ abilities to protect themselves should a shooter enter the room.
Fifteen years later, Syed is heading to Springfield, a young Democrat who flipped an Illinois House seat in her local district in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. She was inspired to run, in part, after seeing politicians in years past fail to address gun violence even as the threat seemed to expand.
“A police officer came by and knocked on the door and moved the door handle to see how the classroom, a classroom filled with third graders, would react,” recalled Syed. “That to me was just such a jarring experience. Now, when I go door to door ... their kids are doing shooting drills in day care.”
Syed was one of 88 candidates in Illinois backed by state and national gun safety groups who won on Nov. 8 following campaigns in which gun violence often was a central focus. The election also saw the rejection of a gun rights gubernatorial candidate and the election of two Democrats to the Illinois Supreme Court, which could make key decisions in cases challenging Illinois’ gun permitting system. Nationally, the lack of a “red wave” of Republican winners in races across the country was interpreted in
