U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Virginia, last night joined Democrats at the sit-in to show his solidarity that a vote on the issue of gun violence is needed in the U.S. House.
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A group of Democrat Representatives ended their overnight “sit in” on the floor of the lower chamber without achieving their goal of forcing the House of Representatives to take up new gun control legislation. Over the past two weeks, the Senate failed to advance this or several other proposals placing new constraints on gun sales, as the USA mourned the deaths of 49 people killed at an Orlando nightclub with 53 others injured.
“They are trying to use the blood of victims to further their political agenda and I think that’s horrid”, says Park.
Democrats continued to occupy the floor, despite Republicans having gone home, until just before noon Thursday, demanding that the House vote on measures to ban people on lists of suspected terrorists from buying guns and to expand universal background checks for gun purchases. But a few lawmakers remained in the chamber’s seats, listening to Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida urge Republican lawmakers to agree to a vote upon their return to the House on July 5.
“We can work to end this violence with common sense gun legislation”, Duckworth said in a statement. The House is out of session until July 5.
The move failed to secure a vote on the gun control measures House Democrats hoped for, but protesters, including Lewis, have vowed to keep fighting after the almost two-week-long recess House Speaker Paul Ryan called early Thursday.
“We must never, ever give up or give in”, announced Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who led the charge for a vote on gun violence. The amendment would mandate that officials be “informed of each application for a firearm by any person who has been on the master watchlist at any point over the past five years-even if the person has been cleared of any wrongdoing, the investigation was otherwise closed, or the person was long ago removed from the list”. However, getting those “aye” or “nay” votes on the record was important for a reason beyond passing gun control legislation.
Democrats leapt on Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope after the cameras, controlled by the House, went dark Wednesday when presiding House officer and Republican Representative Ted Poe declared the chamber not in order during the protest. “It was the avenue for us to really reach millions of people around the world”, Aguilar said Thursday.
“We are not going to allow stunts like this to stop us from carrying out the people’s business”, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday morning in dismissing the protest.
The Democrat’s revolt came after several gun control bills failed in the days following the latest mass-shooting in Orlando.
House Democrats took to social media to live-stream their protest after cameras in the House press gallery that feed C-SPAN’s broadcast were turned off.
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And so Democrats, members of this most establishment of institutions, used one of the most anti-establishment of non-violent protest methods to shake things up: a sit-in, not unlike civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s.
