Massachusetts Lawmakers Join Sit-In on House Floor to Force Gun Vote

House Republicans are accused of briefly shutting off the cameras inside the chamber.

Update: Wednesday, 4:32 p.m.

Representatives Richard Neal and Bill Keating are also in attendance, per Elizabeth Warren.

3:15 p.m.

Right on schedule, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has joined the sit-in. Quite a way to celebrate her 67th birthday.

In lieu of cameras inside the chamber, C-SPAN is broadcasting the demonstration via Rep. Scott Peters’ Periscope feed.

Previously:

House Democrats, including members of the Massachusetts delegation, are currently staging a “sit-in,” occupying the body’s chamber in order to force a vote on gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando gay nightclub shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history.

Representatives Katherine Clark, Mike Capuano, Joe Kennedy, and Jim McGovern all participated in the sit-in, reportedly planned by Democratic leadership in the House days prior. Members of the Senate, including Sen. Ed Markey, also joined their Congressional colleagues.

Not long after the demonstration began, Democrats, as well as C-SPAN, suspected that Republicans briefly turned off the cameras inside the chamber, preventing it from being broadcast to the public.

The sit-in, led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis, earned praise for President Barack Obama, who tweeted earlier this week that the Senate “failed the American people” when it rejected a bill that would have prevented those on the terror watchlist from purchasing guns.

We will provide updates as more information is available.