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Videos Of The Sit-In Show The Chaos You Missed

by Alex Gladu

Let's face it: C-SPAN probably isn't where you normally go to find the viral videos that you want to circulate to your fellow officemates. Then again, you probably don't hear about a sit-in at the House of Representatives very often, either. The country's ongoing debate over gun violence reached a chaotic peak on Wednesday, and videos from the Democratic sit-in at the House of Representatives captured the action like you've never seen the federal government before.

The sit-in began just before 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday at the Capitol. Several Democratic representatives, led by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, physically sat on the floor of the House, vowing to stay put until agenda-setting Republicans allowed them to vote on gun control legislation. The demonstration seemed to parallel the filibuster that occurred in the Senate last week, led by Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

The House doesn't exactly have filibusters thanks to its rules committee, so Rep. Lewis took a much more symbolic route. Calling on his experience with sit-ins during the civil rights era, Lewis led his House colleagues in a protest demonstration that continued into the early morning hours of Thursday. During much of the sit-in, cameras in the House chambers were turned off, and the only videos coming out of the Capitol were live-streams transmitted by lawmakers in the room.