Democrats stage sit-in on House floor to force gun vote

By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON (AA) – Dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives are staging a "sit-in" on the floor of the chamber, demanding to be allowed to vote on a gun control bill.

Approximately 30 Democrats joined the action led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis, according to media reports. The House was not in session at the time.

“My colleagues & I have had enough. We are sitting-in on the House Floor until we get a vote to address gun violence,” tweeted Lewis, a civil rights leader who in the 1960s organized hundreds of sit-ins in the fight for desegregation.

The move comes a little more than a week after a massacre at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub that left 49 victims dead and 53 others wounded.

The sit-in is part of an effort by Democrats to prevent individuals who are on the U.S. no-fly list from purchasing firearms.

“We are calling for the simple dignity of a vote,” said Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, referring to a House measure to block gun purchases by suspected terrorists.

"Rise up Democrats, rise up Americans. We will occupy this chamber," Larson tweeted. "We will no longer be denied a right to vote."

Larson’s state experienced one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history when 20 school children were killed, along with six adults at an elementary school in 2012.

Republican leaders ordered broadcast television cameras of the chamber turned off, according to media reports.