“You don’t have to be an adult to make a difference; I was 14 when I started lobbying,” says Caroline Martell. As a 7th grader at the time of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, she began her advocacy for reducing the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. Since then, Caroline has worked consistently on several fronts, seeking out opportunities in organizations for youth-led gun safety lobbying, education, and advocacy.
Early in her high school career she started a chapter of March For Our Lives, the student-led group initiated after Parkland in support of gun violence prevention legislation. During her freshman year, she joined Team ENOUGH, a national youth organization dedicated to ending gun violence. Caroline was then accepted into the Team ENOUGH Lobbying Collective which trains and prepares young people for lobbying federal legislators.
Selected high school and college students attended an extensive series of weekly webinars featuring firearms experts, victims of gun violence, family members of victims, medical practitioners, legal experts, gun safety experts from federal and state agencies, and victim rights groups as preparation for understanding gun safety issues and how best to address them.
Research topics included gun violence in LGBTQ+, Asian- American and Indigenous communities, as well as its impact on different socio-economic groups. Following the webinar training, students fanned out to lobby at the offices of U.S. Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill regarding pending bills designed to reduce gun violence.
Caroline specifically lobbied bills including H.R. 2927 (Preventing Tragedies Between Police and Communities Act), S. 42 (Background Check Expansion Act). When Team ENOUGH opened a Virginia lobbying group, Caroline reapplied in her sophomore year, and continued her lobbying in the Virginia state legislature. During the COVID period, she and other students met online with a U.S. Presidential candidate, her Congressional Representative, and other influential figures in the gun violence prevention movement, including singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes.
Caroline regards her training in lobbying as invaluable and says: “I’ve had many lessons on how to respond to people who disagree.” Caroline says that students learn about advocacy in school, but they do not learn how to advocate. She recognized that she could leverage her experience as a youth advocate by enlisting, educating, and leading her peers. Caroline collaborated with her former Civics teacher, Mrs. Rachael Feiertag at Cooper Middle School, to develop advocacy training webinars. She led these webinars on Election Day with student participation from eight states. For this project, Caroline was awarded the Gold Award, the Girl Scout’s highest honor.
Caroline is currently working on organizing a Langley High School club to educate students about activism.