After a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor, Congressional Democrats ceased efforts to force a vote on gun legislation.
Representative John Lewis led the sit-in which focused on two proposals: one expands background checks for all commercial gun sales and the other proposes strict limitations to gun purchases by Americans on terrorist suspect lists.
Twenty-six of the left-leaning lawmakers in attendance owned guns, according to Heat Street’s research from a USA Today congressional database. With them were another 12 Democrats who neglected to respond to USA Today’s gun survey or chose not to comment on whether they owned a gun.
“The participation of Democratic gun owners can be viewed as the pursuit of reasonable compromise by left-wing firearm fans—or, potentially, as hypocrisy,” Jillian Kay Melchior of Heat Street noted.
Melchior included tweets made by gun-owning Democrats who were in attendance, revealing their range of stances on the proposals.
“Americans are depending on us to help prevent gun violence,” Senator Harry Reid said. He added, “we need universal background checks so that the deranged can’t buy a gun.”
“Been a hunter my whole life,” Representative John Garamendi tweeted. “We can respect 2nd amendment rights & reduce gun violence.”
At the end of the lengthy sit-in, Representative Lewis, expressing his determination to pass the proposals, stated that this “is a struggle, but we’re going to win this struggle,” NPR reported.
