“No bill, no break!” Rosa DeLauro chanted on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday.
She wasn’t speaking from the lectern. She was joining dozens of her colleagues staging a “sit in” in the well of the House, demanding votes on proposals to ban gun sales to people on terrorist watch lists and to strengthen background checks.
U.S. Rep John Lewis of Georgia, leader of 1960s civil-rights protests, led Wednesday’s House sit-in.
Before the sit-in, DeLauro formally addressed the House Wednesday, calling for passage of “common-sense” gun control measures like a ban on the sale assault weapons and universal background checks for purchasers. (Click on the video to watch her remarks.)
She read the names of some Sandy Hook massacre victims and spoke of how “one child every other day is killed by gun violence in the United States of America.”
“Yes we talk about statistics and we talk about percentages. But what’s important is to know about hte flesh and blood behind those numbers,” DeLauro said.
Connecticut’s other U.S. House members joined the sit-in on the House floor, which follows a filibuster that Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut led last week to push for votes on gun-control measures, all propelled by the June 12 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.