‘Spirit of History’: House Democrats Hold Sit-In on Gun Control

Georgia congressman John Lewis deployed a strategy from his days as a civil rights activist and the viral nature of social media to stage a dramatic sit-in Wednesday on the House floor with his fellow Democrats to force a vote on gun control.

“Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary, sometimes you have to make a way out of no way,” said Lewis, one of the last living icons of civil disobedience during the civil rights movement. “There comes a time when you have to say something, when you have to make a little noise, when you have to move your feet. This is the time. Now is the time to get in the way. The time to act is now. We will be silent no more.”

He and roughly 40 fellow House Democrats vowed “to occupy the floor of the House until there is action.”

They stood only briefly to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a couple dozen visitors in the gallery looked on.

When Lewis finished urging his colleagues to “occupy” the floor, the other Democrats began chanting: “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired!” and “No bill, no break!”

Lewis later told NBC News that “sometimes you are moved by history.”

It is unusual for members to disrupt the functioning of the House to this degree.

If members do not leave the floor and no compromise is reached, it is largely up to Speaker Paul Ryan to decide whether to use the authority of the House to seek to clear the floor and/or sanction members, or to keep the House in recess and wait out the issue.

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