WASHINGTON – Democrats staged a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday, in a bid to force Republicans to allow a vote on a gun control measure. The symbolic move came less than two weeks after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The sit-in began just before noon, as about two dozen Democrats, led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., walked into the historic chamber and sat on the floor in front of the speaker’s podium. Within a couple hours, the number of occupiers more than tripled, as Democratic House members and also senators took turns reciting the names of the victims of the Orlando attacks and reiterating calls for tighter gun control measures.
Democrats, a minority in the House, have tried over the past several days to force a vote on a “no-fly, no buy” measure, which would bar gun sales to terror suspects on the FBI’s “no-fly” list. The sit-in was a dramatic effort to put pressure on House Speaker Paul Ryan to call a vote on the legislation.
“This is not gun control, this is terror control,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said, adding, “if you are on a terror watch list, you should not be able to buy a gun.”
It was the most theatrical show of support for gun safety by House Democrats since a gunman opened fire at a gay night club in Orlando, Florida last week, killing 49 and wounding 53. The gunman, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, bought two guns from a licensed firearms dealer just days before he launched the attack, despite being placed on two federal watch lists.
The sit-in underlined an intensifying battle in the heated national debate on gun control. Shortly after the protest began, Speaker Ryan recessed the House and turned off the chamber’s cameras and microphones, leaving Democrats to shout their speeches across the room.
“Members of Congress have a job…it’s to vote,” Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said, criticizing the GOP’s refusal to vote on the gun control measure.
Throughout Wednesday afternoon, House and Senate Democrats trickled in and out of the U.S. House, at times chanting, “No bill, no break.” But it didn’t appear as if the Republicans would budge.
“The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution, so the House has recessed subject to the call of the chair,” AshLee Strong, Ryan’s press secretary, said in a statement.
Still, many Democrats pledged to occupy the chamber as long as it might take to force House Republicans to vote on the measure.
“We can’t let this go, we can’t put this behind us,” Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., said. “Not this time, never again.”