Eleanor Holmes Norton: “Anyone who thought the Democrats would go away after we were driven to a sit-in on the House floor for gun safety…”

“Anyone who thought the Democrats would go away after we were driven to a sit-in on the House floor for gun safety legislation learned differently very soon after we got home on Wednesday, June 29, when events were held all across the country on a National Day of Action for Gun Violence Prevention. We served notice. Yes, there have been moments of outrage and sometimes we have not kept up the battle unceasingly. Watch us this time. I am very pleased that our very effective police chief, Cathy Lanier, came with me to a roundtable where we heard not only from her, but from residents of the District of Columbia who have experienced the incredible heartache and throbbing agony of the loss of a loved one to gun violence. This morning, unstimulated by me, parents organized themselves to come to the Capitol at 9 a.m. They call themselves D.C. Moms and Dads for Rational Gun Safety Legislation. They are a group of spontaneously formed District of Columbia parents who lack voting representation in the Congress, although they pay the highest taxes per capita of any Americans. They do not have the final vote on the House floor, and they have no Senators. They wanted to come and show their support for national gun legislation to prevent gun violence in our city and our country. They came when, the week before, I had just fought off three amendments in the House Rules Committee to undermine D.C.'s gun laws with an attempt to erase some of those laws.…”