House Democrats, including many if not all of our delegation, just passed the nine-hour mark in their occupation of the House floor demanding votes on gun control legislation. Many Senators, including ours have joined them for at least part of the time, with Elizabeth Warren apparently making a donut run for the members. This effort is being spearheaded by John Lewis, who probably of all members knows a thing or two about sit-ins. Our own Katherine Clark seems to be Lewis’s co-leader in this, leading Rachel Maddow to point out that they can now be remembered as Lewis & Clark. (I’m updating at 9:20 at which time the two of them are being interviewed by Rachel.) Officially the House stands in recess subject to the call of the chair and the C-SPAN cameras have been cut off. We are getting feed via Periscope from a California member, which even C-SPAN is using in lieu of their own cameras. We just learned that someone is hitting the nearest Target for sleeping bags to accommodate an all-night stay. This wouldn’t be an issue if the real House were more like model Congresses I have participated in whereby any legislation filed gets a hearing and those that clear committee get a vote. In some cases the rules were that the plenary would still vote on a committee recommendation of ought not to pass.
UPDATE: There has now been a gathering of the public outside the Capitol in support of the Democratic sit-in. We also expect the GOP to come back into the chamber shortly to attempt votes on other items.
I am not on board with this. This is the United States House of Representatives, not some college president’s office. Do we really want to go down this road? The ginned-up drama is maybe exciting for “the base,” but I predict that it will accomplish little except opening the door to hijincks from our Republican friends that we may not like as well and may not remind us as much of the warm memories we have of the civil rights movement sit-ins. I should say that I am of course in favor of federal fun-control legislation.
…if the House simply took up votes on legislation this would not have to happen. If the Dems were in the majority I’d advise them to allow votes desired by the minority too.
All they want is to put the gun measures to the vote – how hard is it for Paul Ryan to do that?
It’s all in support of the federal anti-terrorism “no fly” list, which is an abomination. Yuck.
It says no-fly, no buy, but also requires that a hearing be held upon denial of purchase on this basis. The one thing I would add is to require a hearing if flying is prohibited too. I understand the concerns with the list, but on balance I favor using it for this purpose.
The no-fly list may be an abomination, but it’s a necessary one. It’s the least worst of the alternatives.
Stunt? Yes/ Bad bill? Yes.
But it MIGHT be a start of something better.
It’s keeping Republican feet under fire, and they are not liking this.
…my thought was, you’re right, but sometimes you need a publicity stunt to wake people up.
The corresponding bills in the Senate have already failed, so no matter what the result of the vote is, it will twist in the wind and die by November.
And you are assuming the publicity you garner will be good and/or to your credit.
…and I do think it’s a good idea for the House to show it is at least addressing the issue. Plus, I believe the legislation proposed by Rep. Jolly referred to above is a new proposal that has not been through the Senate.
Especially if the others pertaining to No Fly were already voted down?
BTW – what is up with the Senate Democrats voting against taking a vote on the matter? I understand if they don’t like it, but how does that relate to the actions of House Democrats protesting the same thing?
…and Dems are acutely aware they don’t control either chamber, but sometimes it is worth bringing something to a vote to force it in to the national dialogue, and if you’re lucky force a few vote switches on political grounds.
I’m not entirely clear on why Senate Dems voted against what sounded like increased funding for background checks. As best I can tell they thought the GOP proposal was insultingly insufficient.
Susan Collins has been trying hard, and getting her teeth kicked in. Our senators grandstands instead.
I suspect our Senators are on board with Collins.
Pass bills. This didn’t change a single mind or vote. There are a lot of innovative solutions to this problem that are passable, achievable, and would save more lives today. I agree that no citizen should have access to this kind of firepower, but in the scheme of things, far more Americans are killed by handguns than assault rifles and the issue is preventing access to the criminals and the mentally ill via better law enforcement, preventing suicide and domestic violence via better funded programs, and preventing gang violence via more cops on the beat and violence prevention programs.
Let’s make an Apollo Project to cutting gun deaths in half by the end of the decade and do it using policies proven to work that have a chance of passage. This no fly list bill would have prevented zero gun deaths in any mass shooting, let alone the 99% of gun deaths that annually occur outside of mass shootings. This is good politics but bad policy.
Something has to break up the 50-something votes to repeal Obamacare. Preventing massacres is one way to do it.
The Collins bill could be passed now in both chambers and they should just do it and move on with the no fly list business that the ACLU has rightly decried as uncinstititional. The Collins bill is constitutional and could be signed by the President today. Funding suicide prevention beyond the paltry $2 million it gets today (and that’s just for veterans) for the 30% of gun deaths by suicide would make a real dent. Their lives matter too!
Funding more cops in Chicago which is actually cutting beat patrols in decimated neighborhoods due to the IL budget standoff would be a great use of federal resources. Tie it to violence prevention like Operation Ceasfire and maybe you could cut the 117 killed THIS MONTH alone in my wife’s hometown down by a decent margin. Their lives matter too!
Finally funding anti domestic violence programs and keeping abusers away from guns could reduce the 9% that get killed in intra family violence. Their lives matter too!
By focusing on the 1% who get killed in mass shootings and the even smaller fraction that have been killed by certain styles of weapons we ignore the 99% of deaths caused by handguns, which Heller prevents us from regulating, and the kind of prevention that could be funded and passes today that would prevent these deaths.
But go ahead, call me the only poster here who lost an immediate family member to a gun crime and who’s seen coworkers bury their young cousins an NRA stooge since I’m not towing this juvrnkle party line. This stunt raises some money for the DCCC and DNC, it doesn’t save a single life.