Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) participated in the sit in on the House Floor demanding a vote on gun violence legislation.
Watch the video here (originally captured by Rep. Scott Peters on Periscope), or read below:
“Like all of you, and like all the American people, I awoke in horror on Sunday a week ago to the news that almost fifty of our fellow citizens and another fifty had been seriously injured.
“Now, I know that a lot of our fellow citizens will say – ‘well, this isn’t gun violence, this is different, this is terrorism’ – as if because this is terrorism, as if because this was motivated in part by an allegiance to ISIS, that somehow guns had nothing to do with this terrible loss of life.
“The fact that someone is motivated by terrorism doesn’t prevent us from taking action to make sure they don’t get on a plane, which would make it easy to murder lots of Americans. So why should we preclude people from getting on a plane where it’s easy to kill a lot of Americans but do nothing about the fact they can get a powerful weapon with an extended ammunition clip and kill even more Americans.
“Why do we send troops into Iraq and Syria to take the fight to terrorists, why do we invest billions in our intelligence agencies, but say that dealing with the lethality, the horrible efficiency of shooting with an assault weapon with an extended ammunition clip – that we won’t touch, that we won’t consider!
“Nothing must be off limits in our efforts to deal with not only the scourge of terrorism, but the scourge of gun violence. Nothing must be off limits!
“And I’m convinced that if we can take up this legislation, if we can enact things like ‘No Fly, No Buy,’ and universal background checks, if we can show the American people that the NRA can be defeated. Indeed, if we can show our colleagues that that you can defeat the NRA and still be elected, we can bring about a tipping point in this country where talking about guns is no longer off limits.
“I’m very proud to join you today. I’m very proud that we’re taking action.
“This is the House equivalent of a filibuster! Because enough is enough. The American people demand action, and we must demand it of ourselves!”
