In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead, Democrats in both houses of Congress have proposed legislation aimed to curb gun violence by expanding background checks to include guns purchased either online or at gun shows, and block anyone on the federal terrorist watchlist from purchasing deadly weapons.
Last week, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, saying “We have a moral obligation to act and not accept that this is inevitable,” began a 15-hour filibuster in the Senate that successfully forced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring a series of gun-related proposals to the floor. [All of the proposals failed, but at least we now know which U.S. Senators voted to put assault rifles into the hands of suspected terrorists, like the young man behind the Orlando attack.]
And, earlier today, civil rights icon John Lewis took up the cause on the floor of the House, in hopes of forcing House Speaker Paul Ryan to bring a similar vote. Ryan responded by ordering that the C-Span cameras be turned off, and calling for an end to the session once Lewis, having said, “We have turned deaf ears to the blood of the innocent and the concern of our nation,” began calling his fellow Democrats up from their seats to stage a sit-in, demanding “Give us a vote!” While the C-Span coverage went dead, though, the protest inside the House chamber continued to grow, as more Democratic Representatives came forward, and others, like Senators Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, came to show their support. And those assembled began broadcasting on their phones by way of Periscope and Facebook. [Eventually, I’m told, C-Span began broadcasting this cell phone video.]
Here, to get a sense of how things began, is footage of Lewis calling his fellow Representatives to join him.
“We are blind to a crisis. Mr. Speaker, where is the heart of this body? Where is our soul?,” Lewis said as he announced his plans to sit down on the floor until such time that Paul Ryan would agree to call a roll-call vote, allowing the American people to see which of their elected officials had been bought by a weapons lobby unwilling to even consider the most basic common sense measures to address gun violence.
For those of you would would like to know more, here are a few relevant clips from around the internet…
…Democrats have tried numerous times over the past week to force a vote on a “no fly, no buy” bill, which would bar terror suspects on the “no-fly” list from purchasing guns. The sit-in represented a sharp escalation in the fight, however, putting political pressure on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to allow a roll-call vote on the policy issue that’s gotten the most traction following the Florida shooting.
But by early afternoon, there were no signs that Republicans would acquiesce to the Democrats’ demands for a vote. Republicans believe that if they give in now, it would encourage more such actions by Democrats, and one GOP leadership aide called the move a “Democrat publicity stunt.”
But Democrats claim they will stay on the floor as long as it takes. They want Ryan to cancel the mid-July recess to take up their proposal.
“We have been too quiet for too long,” Lewis said. “There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time”…
…House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pledged that Democrats would stay on the floor until they get a vote.
“We’ll be here as long as it takes, every day,” she said during a news conference on the steps of the Capitol. “This is the moment of truth.”
But in appearance on CNN, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisc.) showed little inclination to meet Democrats’ demands, criticizing them for staging “a publicity stunt” and for calling for votes on “a bill that already died” in the Senate earlier this week.
“People have a guaranteed right to Second Amendment rights,” Ryan said. “We’re not going to take away a person’s constitutionally guaranteed rights without due process.”…
Some Republicans said it was possible the lights and air conditioning would be turned off later in the night when the House adjourns for the day.
“You don’t usually leave the lights on all night long, and you don’t necessarily leave the air conditioning on,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), adding that he thinks the House should adjourn – but will leave it to Ryan to “decide what needs to happen and when.”
Time:
…As with much of the civil disobedience that fueled progress in the civil rights movement, Lewis’s involvement in efforts to end segregation involved knowingly violating the laws that enforced it. He was beaten by mobs and arrested by police.
And on Wednesday—more than 55 years after he first led lunch counter sit-ins—Lewis and his Democratic colleagues technically broke rules that forbid anyone from taking photos or video inside the House chamber, staying in place for a sit-in after the House had been called into recess.
“Sometimes you have to violate a rule, a law, to uphold a greater law, a moral law,” Lewis said Wednesday on CNN. “We have a right to sit down or sit in to engage in nonviolent protest. It is always right to do right”…
…One Republican congressman did not share in the spirit of a sit-in protest by House Democrats Wednesday on gun control legislation, tweeting that the demonstration was “a disgrace to Woolworth’s.”
Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) took to Twitter while the Democrats sat and made speeches on the House floor, referencing the 1960 sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, where four black students refused to leave after being denied service.
“Calling this a sit-in is a disgrace to Woolworth’s,” Walter wrote. “They sat-in for rights. Dems are ‘sitting-in’ to strip them away”…
In case it’s not obvious, the photo at the top of this post shows Elizabeth Warren, John Lewis, and our own Debbie Dingell sitting down in protest… Oh, and don’t feel too bad for Dingell, who looks painfully uncomfortable in the photo. Someone apparently found her a chair.
