From: NewNowNext
On Wednesday, congressional Democrats staged a historic sit-in on the House floor to demand action on gun control legislation.
The protest began just a day after the Senate failed to pass four gun control bills.
By last night, 168 out of 188 House Democrats and 34 out of 44 senators joined in, with some members literally sitting on the floor. Some shouted “No bill, no break!” or sang “We Shall Overcome,” and held up the names of gun attack victims.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren brought boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts, while others carried in sleeping bags and pillows.
The effort, a rarity in American politics, comes in the wake of a mass shooting at a gay Orlando nightclub on June 12, the worst in modern U.S. history.
Rep. John Lewis, a veteran of the 1960s civil-rights movement, is leading the charge.
“What has this body done [to respond to gun violence]?” he asked. “Nothing. We have turned a deaf ear to the blood of innocents. We are blind to a crisis. Where is our courage? How many more mothers and fathers need to shed tears of grief?”
In response to the sit-in, GOP leaders adjourned the House until July 5 and cut the camera feed to the House floor. Rep. Scott Peters kept filming on his cell-phone, though, and Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope transmissions of the proceedings were aired by C-SPAN and other networks.
“Just because they cut and run in the dark of night, just because they have left, doesn’t mean we are taking no for an answer,” declared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Nearly 100 gun-control bills have come before Congress and all have failed. The change, Democrats insist, won’t come from the White House but by voting out legislators beholden to the NRA.
GOP leaders have rejected efforts to tighten background checks and block people on no-fly lists from obtaining firearms.
“They know that we will not bring a bill that takes away a person’s constitutionally guaranteed rights without… due process,” Majority Leader Paul Ryan told CNN.
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