Meet the 19-year-old gun-control lobbyist who has lawmakers' ears

“What was remarkable was the way he able to become a leader whose voice was listened to by House leadership,” Florida Rep. Ted Deutch said of Charlie Mirsky.

By THEODORIC MEYER 07/14/2019 06:56 AM EDT

Charlie Mirsky has set a goal for himself before he leaves for college at the end of the summer: Persuade Congress to shell out $50 million for gun-violence prevention research.

Mirsky is the political director of March for Our Lives, the grassroots effort to press for stricter gun laws that students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., organized after the deadly shooting there last year. At 19, he’s one of the youngest registered lobbyists in Washington.

Mirsky registered as a lobbyist last summer and arranged to finish his last year of high school online. When Democrats took back the House last year and Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared she would make “bipartisan legislation to have common-sense background checks” a priority, he started spending more time in Washington to help pass the bill.

“We knew we had to be here full-time to make sure these bills had our proper support and that we could help push this legislation as much as possible,” he said in an interview.

Staffers for Washington’s established gun-violence prevention groups credit Mirsky and other teenage advocates with giving the movement a shot in the arm. March for Our Lives was instrumental in persuading House lawmakers to pass a background-checks bill in February — the first new gun restrictions to make it through either chamber in 25 years. And two Democratic presidential candidates hailed the movement by name during the first primary debate last month.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/14/gun-control-lobbyist-florida-parkland-1415657