Do we have the courage? Do we have raw courage to at least make a down payment on ending gun violence in America? #holdthefloor #goodtrouble— John Lewis (@John Lewis) 1466627766.0
Congressional Democrats are staging an epic sit-in in support of a bill to deny guns to people on the no-fly and terror watch lists.
The protest began yesterday morning (June 22), led by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.
Photo by Michael Reynolds/Getty Images.
Democrats have been holding the floor for almost 24 hours while their Republican colleagues gaveled the House into recess late into the night.
The protest has already produced some incredible moments.
Including Lewis' epic speech, recalling his days as a civil rights' leader, a congresswoman hiding her phone in her prosthetic leg so it wouldn't be confiscated, and an anonymous California resident having pizzas delivered to the exhausted, hungry lawmakers.
But the most chilling moment from the overnight sit-in so far might have been Rep. Debbie Dingell's jaw-dropping personal story of a time when she was almost a victim of gun violence at the hands of an abusive father.
The video was taken on Periscope by Rep. Eric Swalwell of California after Republicans banned cameras from the chamber.
(Transcript below, emphasis added).
"I lived in a house with a man that should not have had access to a gun," the Michigan congresswoman said to cheers and amens.
"I know what it's like to have a gun pointed at you and wonder if you were going to live."
"And I know what it's like to hide in a closet and pray to God to not let anything happen to me."
"And we have never — we don't talk about it. We don't want to say that it happens in all kind of households."
"And we still live in a society where we will let a convicted felon who was stalking somebody of domestic abuse still own a gun."
Dingell is far from alone — and she is one of the lucky ones.
Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images.
While more men are likely to be murdered, women are far more likely to be killed by a partner or family member. A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health review found that 40% of female homicide victims were murdered by intimate partner, and over half (55%) of them were killed with a gun.
The researchers concluded that having gun in the home increases the risk a homicide will occur by 300%.
The bill the Democrats are holding out for with the sit-in isn't perfect. Far from it.
Critics, including the ACLU, argue that the no-fly list itself is unconstitutional, biased against Muslim Americans, and that passing the "no-fly, no-gun" law would serve to further legitimize it.
But speeches like Dingell's send a crucial message: America needs to face the stark reality of gun violence and to take action to protect the vulnerable people who are its primary victims.
Actor Michael Jace (center), who was convicted of shooting and killing his wife in 2014. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images.
Sometimes that violence looks like what happened in Sandy Hook and Orlando. Far more of the time, however, it looks like a father with a gun, forcing his daughter into a closet as she prays to God he'll let her live.
As long as violent, abusive, dangerous people can own powerful firearms with little oversight, no one is safe. And if we do nothing, stories like Dingell's will continue to be terribly, tragically common.
After every mass shooting, America holds its breath, wondering if this will be the one — the one that finally forces lawmakers to step up and enact the common-sense gun control measures that the majority of Americans support.
The one that gives us respite from the the tears, the anger, the candlelight vigils, and the mourning of children.
Students at Virginia Tech hold a candlelight vigil for the victims in Orlando. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
It didn't happen after Aurora, when a man opened fire in a crowded movie theater, killing 12. It didn't happen after Newtown, when 20 children aged 6-7 and their teachers were killed in their elementary school. It hasn't happened for any of the thousands of families mourning the loss of a loved one to gun violence in 2016 alone.
After the killings in Orlando in June, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, in which one man killed 49 people and injured 53 more in the span of a few short hours, we held our breaths again, wondering again if things would change.
This time, though, it feels like common-sense gun control measures might actually, finally be within reach.
Days after the massacre, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) staged a filibuster demanding action on gun control. He was joined by more than 30 of his colleagues.
The filibuster lasted 15 hours, and the Senate ultimately agreed to vote on the amendments Murphy was representing.
Sen. Chris Murphy led a 15-hour filibuster on gun control. Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images.
Days later, the Senate voted and rejectedboth amendments.
Today, House Democrats are staging a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives, demanding action on gun control.
The disruption has already forced the chamber into temporary recess twice, and eventually, C-SPAN cameras were shut off. Democrats began tweeting pictures from the sit-in with the hashtag #NoBillNoBreak.
The "No Bill No Break" campaign is designed to force Republican lawmakers into enacting gun control measures before the chamber takes a weeklong break.
Leading them: Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.
“For months, even for years, through seven sessions of Congress, I wondered, what would bring this body to take action?” Lewis (D-Georgia) said shortly before the sit-in.
"We have lost hundreds and thousands of innocent people to gun violence. Tiny little children. Babies. Students. And teachers. Mothers and fathers. Sisters and brothers. Daughters and sons. Friends and neighbors. And what has this body done? Mr. Speaker, not one thing.”
It's unclear if the House Democrats will have any more success than their colleagues in the Senate, but it's a relief to see lawmakers doing anything they can to enact effective gun control measures.
Even President Obama has voiced his support for Rep. Lewis and the protest:
And Rep. Keith Ellison's mom pulled him out of a meeting with an important message about the sit-in:
Ideally, lawmakers represent the will of the people. In reality, however, powerful lobbying forces like the National Rifle Association still hold major sway over many of our representatives.
The fact that the very people we elect to make the laws are resorting to protest tactics just to try to move things forward — after exhausting all their other by-the-books options — shows just how much of a stranglehold the NRA has on Congress.
Lawmakers doing more than just holding their breath is a welcome sight.
Whether the sit-in today will be enough remains to be seen.
But as the parable goes: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world.
It's the only thing that ever has."