Democrats in the U.S. House this afternoon wrapped up a nearly 26 hour sit in to calling for a vote on gun legislation.
17th District Congresswoman Cheri Bustos joined them, sitting with members on the literal floor of the U.S. House.
Democrats were demanding votes on two pieces of gun legislation.
The first, enacting a ban on allowing individuals on the governments no-fly list to purchase a firearm. The second, strengthening background checks for gun purchases.
Bustos tells WGIL she was inspired to join the congressional protest while observing a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting at an Orlando gay night club earlier in June.
“After what happened in Orlando, it’s like, what is this getting us? We don’t talk about policy, we don’t talk about legislation. We don’t talk about trying to address this issue. So we decided to do a sit-in,” Bustos says.
Speaker Paul Ryan derided the sit-in as a “publicity stunt.”
Bustos says that she herself is a gun-owner and these pieces of legislation are “common sense.”
“This is not in anyway trying to impede the second amendment or people’s rights, as long as they’re law-abiding citizens,” Bustos says.
When the official House session ended, C-SPAN cameras were turned off, so, members of Congress, including Bustos began streaming the floor with social media apps like Periscope.
Bustos posted mini-interviews with congressmen to her Snapchat account.
