House Democrats emerge victorious after 25 hour sit-in

More than a day after starting the extraordinary sit-in on the chamber’s floor, House Democrats have ended their protest.

There were no indications that the Republicans who run the house had granted the Democrats’ insistence for votes on bills strengthening background checks and barring firearms sales to suspected terrorists. Nevertheless, twenty-five hours after commandeering the chamber and blasting images of themselves on social media, Democrats have filed out and declared victory.

Hours earlier, Republicans had exited the Capitol, calling the sit-in a publicity stunt. Speaker Paul Ryan said that “We (Republicans) are not going to allow stunts like this to stop us from carrying out the people’s business,”

When the Republicans streamed to the exits, the Democrats stayed on the House floor, crying out with shouts of “No bill, no break!” and waving papers with the names of gun victims written in black.

John Lewis, who had participated in the civil rights sit-ins in the South during the 1960s, said that the Democrats had “crossed one bridge.” He went on to say, “We have other bridges to cross,” and said that Democrats have “made a down payment on ending gun violence” in America.