SPAN uses social media feeds to cover protest

It then opted to utilize the Periscope feed of Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., which had been streaming the protest. “We are a small state with a small but mighty delegation”.

“I believe we did what we had to do”. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut – who led a 15-hour senate filibuster last week on gun control – and Sen. Richard Blumenthal and others. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear a Second Amendment challenge to gun control laws in CT that were passed after Sandy Hook, measures far stricter than what Democrats are seeking on a federal level. “We’re not positive what’s going to be going on with the official House floor schedule”. Perhaps this is the moment C-SPAN finally gets its own cameras – or perhaps this is the moment they set up a tripod and a smartphone in the gallery of the House.

So when Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and a handful of other lawmakers fired up apps on their cell phones to offer an unauthorized live stream of a sit-in over gun control, it not only broke rules against the use of electronic devices on the House floor.

That means the night producing staff, who usually leave at midnight Eastern time, worked until about 4 a.m. Thursday. But Republicans say the straw that broke the camel’s back, the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, is not a gun control issue. “I feel like are we in the District of Columbia or are we in Moscow, that we have to do these kinds of tactics”. Yet calling the protest a stunt misses the larger point, which is that Democrats are on the offensive on guns and clearly think this is a winning issue against the Republicans. He then went on to opine that this pathetic incense-and-peppermints unshaved-armpit throwback was actually a threat to the very democratic process in this, the “world’s oldest democracy”.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the dean of the CT delegation, has been on crutches since she fell off a ladder during a moving mishap early this month. After all, the two gun control measures they are pushing have no chance of passage, and one of them-relying on the flawed terrorist watchlist to prevent gun-buying-is an assault on civil liberties. “To again push the edge of the envelope and make this body reach its potential”. “And that’s what’s kept us going today – moral clarity and moral language”.

Chanting “No bill, no break!” the lawmakers disrupted the House session and occupied the floor of the chamber. Esty, who went without sleep Wednesday night, was there Thursday morning to greet them. “Our phones have been ringing”.

When it was over, Democrats declared the protest a success, arguing that it had brought attention to the problem of gun violence in the country. Courtney said their efforts had “engaged the public in a way that a press conference never would have”. “It really has enduring power”. Yet a few modest election-year cracks have shown in the iron grip that Republicans and the National Rifle Association have long enjoyed on the issue.

But Lewis said since Democrats are the minorities in the House, they need “brothers and sisters on the Republican side” to speak up and help get the necessary votes.

Peters said if House leadership turned the cameras back on, “we’ll turn our cameras off. That’s our deal”. We can not wait any longer for the Congress to act.