San Francisco Chronicle: Congress members join 300 at antigun sit-in

Fresh from last week’s sit-in on the floor of Congress, seven U.S. representatives brought their call for new gun control laws on Wednesday to the front door of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which treats many victims of gun violence.

“No more moments of silence,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said. “No more silence.”

Pelosi and her colleagues told about 300 supporters that House Republican leaders’ offer to schedule a moment of silence for victims of the Orlando massacre instead of scheduling a vote on a bill to ban gun sales to people on the federal no-fly list was “unacceptable.” She wondered aloud whether some of her Republican colleagues were “wholly owned subsidiaries” of the National Rifle Association.

It was billed as a “family sit-in” although, this time, none of the members of Congress sat, as they did during last Thursday’s House sit-in.

A ‘health epidemic’

They stood in the plaza near the hospital’s front door, where they were joined by veteran trauma surgeon Peggy Knudson, still dressed in an operating gown. She called gun violence a “public health epidemic” and said she and her hospital colleagues treat 200 gunshot wound victims annually.

“We need to figure out how to treat this epidemic,” she said.

The members of Congress in San Francisco Wednesday, who also included Reps. Mike Honda of San Jose, Eric Swalwell of Dublin, Jerry McNerney of Stockton and Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks (Los Angeles County), were joined at the podium by citizens who told of losing family members to gun violence and by Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou, who said he believed in “responsible gun ownership.”

“Congress should pass background checks,” Bidou said. “It’s time, for all our communities’ sake.”

‘We’re going to win’

With so many Democrats eager to have a turn railing against the Republican House leadership, the rally lasted about an hour. Some members of Congress, standing in the afternoon sun, looked like they might have welcomed the chance to sit cross-legged again.

“We’re going to win,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. “The public is with us. Just give us a vote, Mr. Speaker. Just give us a vote.”

“Some people shouldn’t be able to have guns,” said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa. “Criminals, the dangerous mentally ill or terrorists shouldn’t be able to get them.”

Sit-in at the House

The representatives were using their annual summer recess to conduct what they were calling a National Day of Action on Gun Violence Prevention. Last Thursday, 170 lawmakers held an unprecedented sit-in on the floor of the House to demand that Speaker Paul Ryan schedule votes on gun control bills that would require background checks and ban sales to persons on the federal no-fly watch list.

The Democrats brought sleeping bags and battery packs into the chamber, ignored Republican demands to end the protest and kept talking while Republicans ordered a “security sweep” involving federal agents and a dog. When Ryan ordered that C-SPAN cameras be shut down, the Democrats responded by posting on social media via their phones.

“They shut off our microphones, and we raised our voices,” Pelosi said.

Ryan called the sit-in a “publicity stunt,” and accused the participants of throwing the House into “chaos.”

The Democrats, saying they sense more public outrage over gun violence following the Orlando massacre than after other mass shootings, vowed to returned to Washington next week to renew their efforts to get a vote scheduled.

At the San Francisco rally, members of gun control advocate groups, such as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Moms Demand Action, filled the plaza to listen to the representatives.

Boy, 3, on guns: ‘Bad’

“This effort will work,” said Sarah Grewe of Marin County, who brought her two children, Eloise, 6, and Ford, 3, to the rally. She asked Ford what he thought of guns, and he said they were “bad, because they kill people.”

“If a 3-year-old can understand this issue,” Grewe said with a grim smile, “I think Congress should be able to.”