House Democrats' Historic #NoBillNoBreak Sit-In: A Recap
BY THE NUMBERS:
- Facebook Live broadcasts from 19 House Democrats were viewed more than 3 million times.
- In a single day, more than 1 million people saw tweets broadcasting the Periscope feeds of House Democrats on the Floor.
- By midday Thursday, the hashtags #NoBillNoBreak and #HoldTheFloor had been tweeted more than 1.4 million times.
- Stories about the No Bill, No Break sit-in appeared on the front pages of more than 80 newspapers across the country on Thursday morning.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:
Detroit Free Press: When the House sat down ... and stood up for Americans
…to dismiss the ongoing sit-in begun by Democrats on Wednesday morning is to dismiss the genuine anguish and frustration among those who advocate sensible gun regulation. It is to dismiss the harm done to America, and Americans, by the gun lobby and the proliferation of firearms it has encouraged. And it is to dismiss the sense of despair growing, in many quarters, at the U.S. government's unwillingness or inability to take even common-sense steps, measures supported by most Americans, to keep guns out of dangerous hands.
This, in the wake of the Orlando shooting, the worst mass shooting in American history, claiming 49 lives. This, after the San Bernardino shooting, claiming 14 lives. This, after nine African-Americans were shot in a Charleston church. This, four years after the Sandy Hook massacre, claiming the lives of 20 first-grade children. This, after an epidemic of gun violence that's swept American cities, like Detroit, where 298 people were murdered in 2014.
When is it enough? That's the question House Democrats are asking…
But perhaps the clearest takeaway is this: The Democratic minority refused to be silent, exercising another constitutional right -- the right to peaceably assemble, to petition the government for redress of wrongs -- and they did it over gun control.
Something, it seems, has changed.
Seattle Times: Democrats sit-in to stand up to gun violence epidemic
What a remarkable sight Congress provided this week as Democrats staged a sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, demanding votes on common-sense gun-safety measures.
The 25-hour demonstration reflected America's exasperation with the lack of meaningful action to address its terrible epidemic of gun violence. Let's hope the spirit of the protest continues.
Demonstrators were calling for votes on whether to expand background checks for gun purchases and prevent potential terrorists on the no-fly list from buying guns.
Extraordinary measures are necessary when so many Republican members of Congress, who control the House, are so beholden to the gun lobby that it won't restrict suspected terrorists from buying guns, even after one of them shoots more than 100 people in Orlando…
What is more obnoxious behavior for representatives in a democracy: disrupting the room and demanding a vote or Speaker of the House Paul Ryan stifling discussion and slinking away for vacation?
With the speaker refusing to entertain votes, he enabled representatives to hide their position on moderate, reasonable gun-control measures supported by the majority of Americans.
Charleston Gazette-Mail: Historic congressional sit-in
U.S. history was made Wednesday when minority Democrats in Congress seized the House chamber in a sit-in, trying to force majority Republicans to allow votes on gun safety laws. It was stunning.
Most Americans — around 80 percent in many polls — favor common sense lifesaving laws, such as universal background checks for all gun purchases or banning high-volume clips used in mass murders or forbidding terrorism suspects on the no-fly list from buying guns.
However, Republicans who control Congress — slavishly obedient to the gun lobby — constantly block voting on such proposals. They defy the will of the U.S. populace…
"We will be here as long as it takes, every day," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declared. "This is the moment of truth."…
Bravo for the courageous House insurgents who fought back through civil disobedience. They're trying to save Americans from gun murder.
Washington Post's Eugene Robinson:
If Republicans care more about maintaining their standing with the National Rifle Association than saving lives, that's their choice. But polls show majority support for sensible new gun-control measures — and members of Congress should at least have to go on record. Democrats are demanding that the House do its job: Vote yes or no…
The sit-in was a spark. It might start a fire.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The unprecedented outrage over guns must continue
The hammerlock that the gun industry holds on the Republican-controlled Congress is being challenged as it hasn't been in 20 years…
House rules don't permit filibusters, so Democrats took a page from the civil rights playbook and held a sit-in, demanding votes on the same kind of modest legislation. Led by 76-year-old Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the moral anchor of Congress, Democrats took over the well of the House on Wednesday and held it for 25 hours.
They were a social media sensation…Ryan helped earlier in the evening by holding a vote to veto new Labor Department rules imposing conflict-of-interest rules on financial advisers. The bill failed and all Ryan got was bad optics, kowtowing to Wall Street while ignoring pleas for gun safety…
The changes Democrats are asking for in gun laws are not radical. Suspected terrorists should not be able to freely buy guns. That's not hard. Tougher background checks are supported by between 70 percent and 92 percent of voters.
Akron Beacon Journal: Gun violence and GOP inaction:
Democrats expressed understandable frustration that in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, 49 dead, just the latest such episode of slaughter, Congress again appears unable to respond in a substantial way. They want a vote on two modest proposals with strong public support. One bans gun sales to those on the terrorism watch list. The other toughens and expands background checks…
There is obvious room for compromise, Democrats and Republicans opposed to terrorist suspects purchasing guns, yet the parties are unable to strike an effective deal. One temptation is to blame both sides. That misses the dynamic at work, the Republican leadership appearing to seek little more than the appearance of action…
What fueled the sit-in and the filibuster is the absence of any action as the death toll mounts and Republicans command Congress.
Boston Globe's Michael Cohen: Democrats lay down political marker on gun control:
What House Democrats are doing…[is] about dramatically highlighting the unwillingness of the GOP-dominated Congress to take a single, hesitating step toward reducing gun violence. It's about demonstrating that the Republican Party — which is working in state legislatures around America to restrict voting rights and reproductive rights and which brought America the Patriot Act and Gitmo — won't even allow a vote in Congress to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns. That's how allergic they are to even the tamest kind of gun control legislation. They are failing to restrict the same people who can't fly on an airplane because of terrorism fears from purchasing an assault weapon. This is the constitutional hill they are willing to die on…
The Democrats' "stunt" is about exposing hypocrisy and demonstrating in the most vivid terms imaginable the cowardly refusal by the GOP to challenge the NRA and the small minority of Americans who oppose even the most anodyne efforts to regulate gun sales. Indeed, the second bill that Democrats have demanded a vote on — expanding background checks — is supported by 90 percent of Americans and even a majority of NRA members. And yet, Republicans still refuse to allow a vote on it.
…none of this can happen until Americans understand the true nature of this debate — of one party's commitment to dealing with gun violence and the other party's preference to shut their eyes, put their hands over the ears, and act like nothing can be done.
That's what this sit-in is about and for the 90 Americans who will lose their lives today, tomorrow, the next day, the day after, and every day forward until some sanity returns to Washington. Its urgency cannot be underestimated.
The Bergen Record's Bruce Lowry: Sitting in, Lewis leads again
There he was, one of the last authentic heroes of the civil rights movement, "sitting in" again — this time to demand action to stop gun violence in America. John Lewis, the 15-term congressman from Georgia, led members of the Democratic caucus to take to the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday to challenge Republicans to take up legislation that would restrict gun purchases by suspected terrorists…
…when Lewis set out to help organize the sit-in Wednesday, it was no trivial matter. It was more than grandstanding, more than what House Speaker Paul Ryan called "a publicity stunt."
Unlike some Republicans, particularly in the House, who never seem to be able to look beyond the ends of their noses, or the next election, Lewis knows the long game. He knows what it's like to be in the long struggle.
The Des Moines Register: In spectacular fashion, Congress fails to pass gun laws
On Wednesday, frustrated Democratic members of the House, including Iowa's Dave Loebsack, launched a dramatic, 25-hour sit-down strike, protesting the GOP leadership's refusal to call for a vote on gun-control legislation. The Democrats squatted on the floor, clutching blankets, waved signs and sang "We Shall Overcome."
It was a symbolic act of protest — an act of civil disobedience intended to raise awareness and rally public support for their cause.
Republicans were scornful and headed for home at the first opportunity. U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa — never one to mince words, even when those words aren't supported by facts, logic or reason — tweeted: "I've had it with the gun-grabbing Democrats and their sit-in, anti-2nd amendment jihad. I'm going to go home and buy a new gun."
It's not clear why King feels an urgent need to add to his arsenal. The Democrats were simply trying to force a vote on a bill amendment that would prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing guns. This is a concept that, according to a recent CNN poll, has greater support among Republicans than Democrats…
Until Congress finds the courage to pass meaningful restrictions on gun ownership, the cycle of violence will continue to repeat itself.
However ideologically polarized this country, however certain we are that the other party's presidential candidate will endanger America, there is one issue that brings Americans together. By whopping majorities and across party lines, almost all of us want greater scrutiny of people who try to buy firearms. And yet, Congress refuses to give us that. Specifically, Republicans in Congress refuse…
Most people want these laws. Liberals, conservatives, gun-owners, gun-haters, Democrats, Republicans and independents all want more gun regulation, polls consistently show. Nine out of ten Americans want universal background checks, according to Public Policy Polling. A whopping 87 percent of Georgians want it, and that finding came 10 days before the Orlando bloodbath. Breaking down the number, the pollster said 87 percent of Republicans in Georgia, 93 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of independents favor such a law. Only 8 percent of Georgians oppose the expanded checks.
As for the U.S. House, Speaker Paul Ryan wouldn't even allow a vote on gun control. He shut down the session at 3 a.m. Thursday to put an end to a 25-hour sit-in by Democrats led by Atlanta Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) demanding a vote before the July 4 break.
Democrats in the House held a sit-in to demand a vote on gun measures in that chamber. Led by Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the 1960s civil rights movement, it was joined by some senators.
As a veteran of the civil disobedience that propelled the civil rights movement, Lewis is employing another time-honored American tool in pursuit of progress.
In both the Senate and the House, lawmakers of conscience are pushing Congress to move beyond the status quo. This shows courage and integrity.