First-graders who survived Sandy Hook will vote for the first time in the presidential election

Grace Fischer survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre by remaining silent and crouched down while her first-grade teacher quietly read “The Nutcracker.”

She spent the rest of her childhood watching mostly from the sidelines as dozens of similar shootings rocked other schools across the country.

In November, 18-year-old Fischer will be running for president for the first time. Nearly 12 years after she witnessed one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, it's a monumental moment that gives her and those around her hope that they can make a difference.

“This is a huge turning point in our lives,” said Fischer, who was 6 years old when a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.

Activists at the time hoped the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, would be a turning point and spark significant legislative action, says Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, a gun safety group founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords, a survivor of the shooting.

“The country was forced to look at this problem in an emotional, horrific way,” Brown said. “The loss of all those children in their class was so unfathomable and so horrific that even the politicians and the people who had tried to pretend this wasn't a growing problem in this country couldn't deny it for the first time.”

Since then, states have passed hundreds of gun safety laws, but major federal legislative proposals, including a ban on semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, have failed.

After the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, the Trump administration imposed a federal ban on bump stocks, gun accessories that give semi-automatic rifles a faster rate of fire, but the Supreme Court struck down the rule this year.

Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the expiration of the 1994 nationwide ban on assault rifles. Mass shootings are now occurring more and more frequently.

Since 2013, at least 122 people have been killed by gunfire in 64 planned school shootings, according to NBC News. Most recently, two students and two teachers were killed at Apalachee High School in Georgia on September 4, allegedly by a 14-year-old suspect with an AR-style rifle, authorities said.

On Thursday, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions said that firearms were the leading cause of death among children and adolescents for the third year in a row, killing more people between the ages of one and 17 in the United States than car accidents and cancer.

“We were told this would change everything for the better,” said Emma Ehrens, 18, who stood next to the Sandy Hook shooter when he shot her classmates. “It breaks your heart a little more each time.”

Ehrens, Fischer and two other first-class Sandy Hook survivors who spoke to NBC News said they hope to turn the tide by electing Vice President Kamala Harris as president.

“For me, this is child’s play,” said 18-year-old survivor Lilly Wasilnak.

The teenagers first met Harris at the White House on June 6, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, as they prepared to graduate from high school. They recounted their individual experiences of the shooting to Harris, who thanked them for their bravery.

“None of you should have had to go through this experience,” Harris told them, according to a video released by the White House. “Know that you are making a difference.”

Harris has said protecting students from gun violence in schools is a top priority. Her plan, which survivors support, includes banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and requiring universal background checks.

Harris also supports so-called red flag laws, which allow family members or law enforcement to petition the court to temporarily confiscate guns if they believe the gun owner could cause harm.

Matt Holden, another survivor who turned 18 last month, said those plans differ from those of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, who faced heavy criticism last week after saying school shootings were a “fact of life.”

“I don't like that. I don't like admitting that. I don't like that it's a fact,” the Ohio senator said at a rally in Phoenix. “But if you're a psychopath and you want to make headlines, you have to realize that our schools are easy targets.”

“We need to tighten security so that a psychopath who comes through the front door and kills a few kids can't do that,” Vance added.

At the rally, Vance said strict gun restrictions are not the solution. At a National Rifle Association event in May, Trump said he would reverse the Biden administration's executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence.

In a response to a request for comment, the Trump team provided quotes from relatives of shooting victims expressing their support for the former president, including quotes from JT Lewis, whose brother Jesse was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.

“President Trump created the Federal School Safety Commission and signed the Stop School Violence Act,” Lewis said. “He supports securing schools and protecting our nation's children. Kamala Harris wants to ban police from schools and leave our children defenseless. The choice is simple.”

Brown, Giffords' executive director, said gun safety laws are the way forward to ensure school shootings do not remain the norm.

“There is a ticket in this race that keeps saying it doesn't have to be that way,” she said.

As NBC News first reported, Giffords spent $15 million to support Harris' campaign and other House candidates who support stricter gun laws.

Since Sandy Hook, states have passed more than 620 gun safety laws, Brown said. In 2022, President Joe Biden enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years.

“The momentum is there and the will is there,” Brown said.

When survivors are allowed to vote for the first time this fall, Wasilnak and Holden said they will do so in honor of their first-graders who will not live to see this milestone, as well as the teachers who died to give them the opportunity to do so.

“I vote for the 26 who cannot,” said Wasilnak.