After failing to pass any new gun control legislation this week as many as 40 or more Democrat legislators have taken the House floor by sit-in, in an attempt to force a vote on increasing gun control in the U.S. On Monday, the Senate shut down all four recently-proposed national gun control bills.
The bills, criticized by both the left and the right, faced a lot of opposition. They were misguided and even potentially unconstitutional in the case of “no-fly, no-buy” legislation that would suspend due process for people on government watchlists. Both the NRA and the ACLU have taken position against some watchlist bills. Still, the vote fell largely along party lines.
“We all agree that terrorists should not be allowed to purchase or possess firearms,” said NRA-ILA executive director Chris Cox, thanking the lawmakers who successfully opposed the bills. “We should all agree that law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a secret government list should not be denied their constitutional right to due process. These are not mutually exclusive ideas. It is shocking that the safety of the American people is taking a backseat to political theater.”
Led by Georgia congressman John Lewis (D) the sit-in is halting all House functions. Frequently televised, the floor is not being broadcast as the House is not in session.
See Also: Top Five Reasons to Oppose No-Fly, No-Buy Legislation
“Sometimes you have to do something out of the ordinary, sometimes you have to make a way out of no way,” said Lewis. “There comes a time when you have to say something, when you have to make a little noise, when you have to move your feet. This is the time. Now is the time to get in the way. The time to act is now. We will be silent no more.” Lewis was a prominent civil rights leader and has a long history of non-violent protesting, organizing and protesting with marches and sit-ins.
“We have lost hundreds and thousands of innocent people to gun violence,” Lewis said. “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.”
Lewis and the other protesting legislators claim that they’ve “occupied” the floor, taking turns giving speeches and chanting “No bill no break!”
Republican legislators don’t seem moved by the protest, which follows in the footsteps of last week’s Democrat-led Senate filibuster calling for the doomed gun control bills.
“The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution, so the House has recessed subject to the call of the chair,” said AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), in a statement writes Politico.
It will be up to Ryan to decide whether to issue sanctions, clear the floor or wait out the protest and continue the recess. In the meantime gun control groups are praising the protesting legislators.
“Leader Pelosi, Congressman Lewis, and dozens of their colleagues are showing extraordinary leadership today,” said Everytown for Gun Safety president and gun control advocate John Feinblatt. “No doubt the gun lobby’s allies will try to subvert the will of the people, but what we’re seeing on the House floor and Capitol steps today makes it clearer than ever – Americans want their representatives to buck the NRA, keep guns out of dangerous hands, and help save lives.”
This sit-in is similar to a Republican-led protest from 2008 when then-minority leader John Boehner along with a group of Republicans occupied the House floor while it was out of session to force a special vote on an energy bill. At the time, many people condemned the sit-in.
“I’m highly skeptical of efforts toward even those ends that feature members of Congress adopting the tactics of the powerless,” writes Conor Friedersdorf for the Atlantic. “When Republicans respond to not getting their way by undermining legislative norms, the press objects. It should object here.”
Their childish fund raiser made me remember when my son was 4 years old and threw a red faced, screaming “Impassioned Sit-In” because he had dug a hole in the back yard and his mom wouldn’t “let” him bring it into the house to play with. The Repressives involved with their tantrum just want more violence and bloodshed to use for propaganda and instill fear in the Regressives to demand that someone else “do something” so they can passively “feel safe” without being burdened with responsibility. The “DeGette” grade among them are just willfully ignorant and want to deny the reality of the world they occupy.
The people of the U.S. that do not see or understand the importance of the Second Amendment should not prevail in their attempt to destroy the amendment. I am confident you (Senators) will vote against any and all gun control legislation. I am hopeful the good people will see what a liar Hillary is and how deplorable she is and vote to keep her OUT of office.
I put this on another site. How can Representative Lewis talk about being part of the civil rights movement, about how he was involved in ensure ALL Americans had the protections guaranteed to us by the Constitution, and then come out in support of taking away those rights without due process! The exact SAME due process that was denied black Americans in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I cannot understand how this man or anyone like him can support such actions
It’s amazing that these elected leaders would waste the tax payers money on any of this action as well as their vailed gun control passion. Any intelligent person understands tighter gun control will not make us more safe. A sick human will get whatever tool they desire to carry out the deed. A terrorist will definitely have the tools, and likely illegally. Everyone of these politicians should be disciplined harshly.
Personally? As much as I HATE the idea of more and more loss of rights for law abiding citizens to enjoy the individual power that firearms ownership represents, when I honestly appraise the situation based on human nature, there IS NO ANSWER to the problems created by our allowing KNOWN off balance, clearly dangerous people to live amongst us. We do not overall possess the heart to confine all of these people that we KNOW are among us, and we do not overall possess the clear headed honesty to factor in the unchanged nature of man to over and over and over again repeat the oppressions of the past (even the PRESENT still in some lands) The answer can be as plain as the nose on the end of your face, but as soon as you allow unrealistic emotional based reason to rule over what comes out of your mouth, the answer will remain invisible. And that “answer”? We can NOT have everything…we can NOT have true freedom AND protection from oppression…put the blindfold on (which obviously WAY too many people historically and presently INSIST on doing) and we WILL more and more go backwards and set our self up for the repression of tyrannical MAN ruling over us. Along with freedom there is OBVIOUSLY going to come costs. There is NO WAY to “fix it” through big brother/nanny government..the only real “fix it” means is really on an individual cultural basis of honest common sense values. If we insist on allowing dangerous people to live freely amongst us, if THAT is of high value to us, then we have to soberly accept and do our best individually to mitigate the danger that comes along with that …we can not expect to give government more and more power to “protect” us while at the same time honestly expect the FALLIBLE people that make up government to not develop their OWN agendas and slowly usurp ALL power from the individual…ONCE AGAIN …. But again anyone ruled over by pie in the sky emotions will simply refuse to took honestly at the problems we face INCLUDING human nature and HISTORICAL EVIDENCE of what man does OVER AND OVER AND OVER again… It is never going to happen that government IF GIVEN THE POWER, is not going to misuse it! It is the biggest DUHHH! and is sitting RIGHT in front of every person’s face plain as day… All I see on the horizon for europe and america is more and more loss of freedom and individual power until everyone is a slave AGAIN …at which time, eventually, there will be WAR again…nation against nation, monsters able to rally hopeless masses behind any good sounding promise of things getting better for them ….So freedom is a hang on to it for dear life or SURELY lose it to evil men…my 2 cents.
The Democrats are doing something they do well…Sitting on their asses doing nothing.
Now, that is funny because it’s true!
I called my Rep’s office a few days ago in regards to the proper method to remove these law breaking elitist morons from trespassing on our property. I suggested to my Rep’s aides, that my Congressman suggest to Speaker Ryan that he grow a pair, and have (at government expense) several air horns such as the ones used on trains, to be delivered onto the House Floor, have hearing protection given to all workers who deployed the air horns, and cut them loose continuously until these trespassers went back to their respective offices. Of course, it appears the Speaker didn’t have a pair to utilize. The morons left of their own accord, presumably to change their Depends.
No, offer the hearing protection to everyone sitting …the noise will STILL annoy the crap out of them and deny them from pleasant conversation and leave them to their OWN individual thinking …my guess is then? The one by one (wordlessly lol) excuse themselves and leave …think about that for a moment!
Truthfully I think, they will each be glad for an excuse to leave…how many of them REALLY believe what they are doing is RIGHT? It is the mob mentality where someone made them feel like traitors if they too don’t sit there…politics in other words…help these poor fools, give them all the best hearing protection and BLAST THEM! lol
Sit ins are for the outside of the building. If they can’t follow the rules, throw them out. I mean THROW them out. Street tactics are for, you guessed it, the street. This is the mindset of the American Left. They really do feel they are the only ‘truth’ in our society. They are, of course, wrong.
Ryan should have had all the chairs removed for the balance of the year for the dems sitting on the floor!
As an appreciator of irony, I particularly enjoyed this infantile sit in. Mimicking civil-rights protests, these liberal politicians demanded that the government be granted the authority to deprive citizens of our rights without due process. The idiocy and hypocrisy was glorious. One has to wonder: are the Democrats just too dumb to realize the irony or do they think the American people are just that dumb?
Further, I wonder how many of these same politicians were against the Patriot Act (and rightly so)? And, if you asked them why, I bet the first two words out of their mouths would be “due process”.
Morons.
Every ex vet including myself and those that fought in one agree we cannot allow our people to be disarmed by this liberal lie and false stats on gun ownership.
I will never be an excellent vet. I will always be a veteran.
Typical Democrats when a crisis hits they sit on their a– and let the conservatives do the fighting in peace and war.
My mother would have taken a hickory switch and spanked all their asses, for pitching a tantrum in the middle of the floor just to get their way. Also if they still don’t get their way, They will take the ball and go home!
In other words…We don’t have time for that childish bull crap!
I wish these Congress people were influenced by the “Hail-Bop Comet leaders” and joined with them drinking the cool-aid of their imaginary beliefs and get it over with. Then we would only need to expose ourselves to this BS for a short period. Where do they logically come forward with guns caused the hate perpetuated massacre by this delusional islamic extemist. Why do they constantly try to force disarmenent on us (unless its a deliberate plan)when history shows time after time that it is the common citizen who will be destroyed by the lack of ability to defend themselves. Germany, Russia,the American Indian for a few . We need mental health intervention for all those who hold to this 17th century belief system. How is it applicable in the 21st century and forward?
All my life I have been told in school and by the media that Americans lived through a misguided and destructive era that became known as “McCarthyism” where people were unfairly investigated, accused and oppressed because they may have been Communists sympathizers. It did not matter that Communism has killed tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people the guiding principles of the United States should not be compromised. I was led to believe that the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was in fact un-American for it’s activities. Today we have a group of House members that want to eliminate one specific Constitutional right based upon the flimsiest level of suspicion. This long looming era of ‘Pelosiyism’ now seeks to trash our political system by eliminating due process and disregarding important historical lessons. Once again with great pride I stand with the NRA in support of the 2A.
Not to mention that McCarthy was right. After the fall of the USSR, documents from the KGB and other agencies actually proved his information very accurate.
First, I found the word “impassioned” to be insulting! A better way of saying what the left wing did on the floor of the House would be to call it arrogant and ignorant!!! Many of these liberal lawmakers come from home districts that include many of the major cities in OUR Country. Most have become hell holes of drug infested, gang ruled, murder capitals. Unfortunately, many states have more than one within their borders. The other thing that these urban centers have in common is that they have been run by the left wing machines for at least fifty years. I feel bad for the law abiding citizens in these places, who can’t even own a gun legally to defend their families, their homes and themselves. Perhaps a greater good and goal for the Democrats, who have once again enslaved the poor with their handouts and welfare, would be to rid these people of the thugs that actually run the inner cities. I was born and grew up in one the cities described here, St. Louis, Mo. When I go ‘home’ I barely recognize the inner city I grew up in. Some areas look like a war zone and I only drive through the area I refer to as my “neighborhood” early on a Sunday morning for obvious reasons. It’s too dangerous to do so at any other time of day or night. Wake up citizens of the cities and throw out the bums who are destroying your neighborhoods and a decent life for the law abiding.
Sad,sad,sad. They have been brainwashed!! If they ever had a brain !!!
Ignorance is not an excuse, these people should all be investigated and drug tested, just another example of how these democrats waste tax payers money. They all need to be responsible for their actions, not their emotional ideologies. Their job
is to protect the Constitution & The Bill of Rights of “We The People” Their Boss, not their perverse interpretations.
I’d have gone with childish, infantile, immature, “Tantrum”, over Impassioned. But that’s just me.
Lets make these idiots have to qualify for secret service protection. Make them have to go through background checks and the agents that protect them even though they are government employees. They want “We the People” the “Law Abiding Citizens to go through background checks to purchase a firearm so should they. AND Take away the Assault weapons that the SS Agents protect them with. Put them out there without protection and see how they change their minds. How many of them would be dead by sundown without the protection “We the People” Pay for? Should of had them all arrested when their asses hit the floor. One law abiding tax payer would of been drug off and never heard from again for doing the same thing.
Talk about terrorists, These are terrorists, they hold up the process of our Govt. ( such as it is, Small chuckle allowed ) because they do not get their way, The whole lot should have been arrested and all should have been placed on the no fly list. Capitol Police should have roughed them up a bit, a couple Tazer hits would have improved the bodily functions in these old Geezers and I can say Geezers as I am 64
Mass Shooting Myth — U.S. Homicide Rate Hits 51-year Low as Gun Ownership Increased 141%In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, politicians have attempted to use the tragedy as means of garnering public support for increased gun control measures. Four pieces of knee-jerk gun control legislation were defeated in Congress yesterday, but the debate surrounding gun rights continues unabated.
The new narrative is that “mass shootings,” defined by the FBI as 3 or more people killed in one incident, are at epidemic level and thus require society to increase restrictions on gun ownership as a means of saving lives and lowering the U.S. homicide rate.
However, this narrative flies in the face of reality as the homicide rate in the U.S. is actually at a 51-year low, according to FBI data. The homicide rate in the U.S. for 2014, the most recent year available, was 4.5 per 100,000. The 2014 total is part of a long downward trend and is the lowest homicide rate recorded since 1963 when the rate was 4.6 per 100,000. The last time the homicide rate in the U.S. was lower than it is now was in 1957 when the total homicide rate was 4.0 per 100,000.
Surprisingly, most Americans are completely unaware of this information, as the media and politicians in the U.S. consistently work to create a circus-like atmosphere surrounding firearms as a means of controlling the fear-based narrative of a public need for additional gun restrictions.
Contrary to what the public has been led to believe; as the homicide rate in the U.S. has fallen to a 51-year low, gun ownership has increased drastically.
According to a report by the Mises Institute:
Over a recent 20 year period, the number of new guns in the US that were either manufactured in the US or imported into the US increased 141 percent from 6.6 million new guns in 1994 to 16 million in 2013. That means a gross total of 132 million new guns were added into the US population over that time period.
However one wants to rationalize this information there is one overarching theme – increased access to firearms has not led to a more violent society in the U.S. – and according to the FBI’s data, has actually correlated with a markedly less violent society as indicated by the lowest homicide rate in the past 50 years.
Since the data is so convincingly clear, gun control advocates have now resorted to defining “mass shootings” as a special type of murder, and using the emotion of tragedies like Orlando, as an excuse for further regulate firearms in hopes that peoples’ knee-jerk reactions will overcome data and logic.
Mass Shooting Myth — U.S. Homicide Rate Hits 51-year Low as Gun Ownership Increased 141%In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, politicians have attempted to use the tragedy as means of garnering public support for increased gun control measures. Four pieces of knee-jerk gun control legislation were defeated in Congress yesterday, but the debate surrounding gun rights continues unabated.
The new narrative is that “mass shootings,” defined by the FBI as 3 or more people killed in one incident, are at epidemic level and thus require society to increase restrictions on gun ownership as a means of saving lives and lowering the U.S. homicide rate.
However, this narrative flies in the face of reality as the homicide rate in the U.S. is actually at a 51-year low, according to FBI data. The homicide rate in the U.S. for 2014, the most recent year available, was 4.5 per 100,000. The 2014 total is part of a long downward trend and is the lowest homicide rate recorded since 1963 when the rate was 4.6 per 100,000. The last time the homicide rate in the U.S. was lower than it is now was in 1957 when the total homicide rate was 4.0 per 100,000.
Surprisingly, most Americans are completely unaware of this information, as the media and politicians in the U.S. consistently work to create a circus-like atmosphere surrounding firearms as a means of controlling the fear-based narrative of a public need for additional gun restrictions.
Contrary to what the public has been led to believe; as the homicide rate in the U.S. has fallen to a 51-year low, gun ownership has increased drastically.
According to a report by the Mises Institute:
Over a recent 20 year period, the number of new guns in the US that were either manufactured in the US or imported into the US increased 141 percent from 6.6 million new guns in 1994 to 16 million in 2013. That means a gross total of 132 million new guns were added into the US population over that time period.
However one wants to rationalize this information there is one overarching theme – increased access to firearms has not led to a more violent society in the U.S. – and according to the FBI’s data, has actually correlated with a markedly less violent society as indicated by the lowest homicide rate in the past 50 years.
Since the data is so convincingly clear, gun control advocates have now resorted to defining “mass shootings” as a special type of murder, and using the emotion of tragedies like Orlando, as an excuse for further regulate firearms in hopes that peoples’ knee-jerk reactions will overcome data and logic.
Mass Shooting Myth — U.S. Homicide Rate Hits 51-year Low as Gun Ownership Increased 141%In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, politicians have attempted to use the tragedy as means of garnering public support for increased gun control measures. Four pieces of knee-jerk gun control legislation were defeated in Congress yesterday, but the debate surrounding gun rights continues unabated.
The new narrative is that “mass shootings,” defined by the FBI as 3 or more people killed in one incident, are at epidemic level and thus require society to increase restrictions on gun ownership as a means of saving lives and lowering the U.S. homicide rate.
However, this narrative flies in the face of reality as the homicide rate in the U.S. is actually at a 51-year low, according to FBI data. The homicide rate in the U.S. for 2014, the most recent year available, was 4.5 per 100,000. The 2014 total is part of a long downward trend and is the lowest homicide rate recorded since 1963 when the rate was 4.6 per 100,000. The last time the homicide rate in the U.S. was lower than it is now was in 1957 when the total homicide rate was 4.0 per 100,000.
Surprisingly, most Americans are completely unaware of this information, as the media and politicians in the U.S. consistently work to create a circus-like atmosphere surrounding firearms as a means of controlling the fear-based narrative of a public need for additional gun restrictions.
Contrary to what the public has been led to believe; as the homicide rate in the U.S. has fallen to a 51-year low, gun ownership has increased drastically.
According to a report by the Mises Institute:
Over a recent 20 year period, the number of new guns in the US that were either manufactured in the US or imported into the US increased 141 percent from 6.6 million new guns in 1994 to 16 million in 2013. That means a gross total of 132 million new guns were added into the US population over that time period.
However one wants to rationalize this information there is one overarching theme – increased access to firearms has not led to a more violent society in the U.S. – and according to the FBI’s data, has actually correlated with a markedly less violent society as indicated by the lowest homicide rate in the past 50 years.
Since the data is so convincingly clear, gun control advocates have now resorted to defining “mass shootings” as a special type of murder, and using the emotion of tragedies like Orlando, as an excuse for further regulate firearms in hopes that peoples’ knee-jerk reactions will overcome data and logic.
Mass Shooting Myth — U.S. Homicide Rate Hits 51-year Low as Gun Ownership Increased 141%
In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, politicians have attempted to use the tragedy as means of garnering public support for increased gun control measures. Four pieces of knee-jerk gun control legislation were defeated in Congress yesterday, but the debate surrounding gun rights continues unabated.
The new narrative is that “mass shootings,” defined by the FBI as 3 or more people killed in one incident, are at epidemic level and thus require society to increase restrictions on gun ownership as a means of saving lives and lowering the U.S. homicide rate.
However, this narrative flies in the face of reality as the homicide rate in the U.S. is actually at a 51-year low, according to FBI data. The homicide rate in the U.S. for 2014, the most recent year available, was 4.5 per 100,000. The 2014 total is part of a long downward trend and is the lowest homicide rate recorded since 1963 when the rate was 4.6 per 100,000. The last time the homicide rate in the U.S. was lower than it is now was in 1957 when the total homicide rate was 4.0 per 100,000.
Surprisingly, most Americans are completely unaware of this information, as the media and politicians in the U.S. consistently work to create a circus-like atmosphere surrounding firearms as a means of controlling the fear-based narrative of a public need for additional gun restrictions.
Contrary to what the public has been led to believe; as the homicide rate in the U.S. has fallen to a 51-year low, gun ownership has increased drastically.
According to a report by the Mises Institute:
Over a recent 20 year period, the number of new guns in the US that were either manufactured in the US or imported into the US increased 141 percent from 6.6 million new guns in 1994 to 16 million in 2013. That means a gross total of 132 million new guns were added into the US population over that time period.
However one wants to rationalize this information there is one overarching theme – increased access to firearms has not led to a more violent society in the U.S. – and according to the FBI’s data, has actually correlated with a markedly less violent society as indicated by the lowest homicide rate in the past 50 years.
Since the data is so convincingly clear, gun control advocates have now resorted to defining “mass shootings” as a special type of murder, and using the emotion of tragedies like Orlando, as an excuse for further regulate firearms in hopes that peoples’ knee-jerk reactions will overcome data and logic.
Democrat Lewis some how neglected to include the loss of Law Enforcement lives. Why is that?
“We have lost hundreds and thousands of innocent people to gun violence,” Lewis said. “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.”
No mention in the Article that the dems were using the sit in to roll in the victims blood as a fundraiser for Democrats. The sent solicitations referencing the sit in and the need for donations to fight the Republicans. Speaker Ryan showed copies of the fundraising documents and chewed a bit of democratic ass. He should have had the sit in politicians removed for obstruction and preferably arrested!