When a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando the immediate aftermath was all too familiar. Lawmakers shared their “thoughts and prayers” as moments of silence were observed, but action to reform gun laws did not follow.
Democrats in Congress, however, saw a moment of reckoning and began plotting a way to stop yet another massacre fading quickly from the public consciousness. That process culminated in the historic sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives that came to a close on Thursday after nearly 26 hours.
In a chamber governed under strict rules and decorum, it was a moment that defied all precedent.
Last week, as Democrats in the Senate mounted a nearly 15-hour filibuster to force votes on universal background checks and preventing people on terrorism watchlists from purchasing guns, their counterparts in the House decided it would soon be their turn to shake up the regular order.
They had limited tools at their disposal. Unlike in the Senate, where a single member can eat up hours of debate with a talking filibuster, the primary way for a minority in the House to demand a vote would be through a mechanism known as a discharge petition. But that would require the signatures of 218 members, a number of supporters Democrats did not have.
What they did come up with was a deadline and a slogan. Congress was set to depart for a weeklong recess on Thursday, so Democrats and a coalition of anti-gun violence groups decided upon a last-minute push, under the title “No Bill, No Break”. They would be unlikely to secure a vote, but at the very least they would draw attention to the issue as their opponents were returning to their districts to face constituents increasingly concerned about the nation’s gun laws.
Elsewhere in the Capitol, more than a dozen Democrats huddled to brainstorm a demonstration that would reverberate beyond Washington. They emerged with the plan to stage the sit-in, with the blessing of party leaders and a high-profile leader in the Georgia congressman John Lewis, who utilized similar tactics as a young activist during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“What is the tipping point?” Lewis declared as he kicked off the sit-in at around 11.25am on Wednesday. “Are we blind? Can we see? How many more mothers, how many more fathers need to shed tears of grief before we do something?”
As the clocked ticked, more Democrats joined the effort – including members of the Senate, among them prominent figures such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Dozens of advocates assembled outside the Capitol, some arriving with pizza and blankets for those preparing to stay on the House floor overnight.
Republicans were quick to chastise Democrats for fundraising through the sit-in, and to dismiss the spectacle as a publicity stunt. For Democrats, that was precisely the point.
Even as Republican leaders had House cameras switched off, so channels such as C-Span could not carry the footage, Democrats released their own videos on social media. Such footage was picked up and broadcast live by CNN and MSNBC. The image before viewers, regardless of the politics at play, presented a dramatic contrast: Democrats singing We Shall Overcome as Republicans did nothing.
Advocates of gun control reform do not labor under the illusion that substantive reforms will ever pass in a Republican-controlled Congress. Their goal is to ensure that gun violence is a wedge issue at the polls in November.
A statement by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who chairs the Democratic National Committee, conceded as much.
“Elections have consequences,” she wrote, “and we cannot achieve true progress if our elected leaders stand with the gun lobby instead of the people.
“We must elect more Democrats to the House and Senate and a Democrat as our next president to end the obstruction, end the silence and stand up for 90% of Americans who agree that someone who isn’t allowed to fly because they’re on a terror watchlist should not be able to buy guns, assault weapons and explosives.”
Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who led last week’s Senate filibuster, said the grassroots were more galvanized than ever before. Even if the outcome of his and others’ efforts did not immediately translate to the passage of tougher gun laws, he said, siphoning off even a handful of Republican votes in the Senate was a sign of progress.
“For a long time this was just a question of more political power on the gun lobby side than on our side,” Murphy said. “I think the enthusiasm is shifting from the gun lobby’s forces to the forces of change.
“I think you’re going to look back five years from now or 10 years from now and see this week as a watershed week in history.”
