U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan on Wednesday took part in a protest on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote on gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
"It's created a much bigger momentum than I think anybody-even the people who started it-anticipated," he said of the demonstration.
Nolan joined dozens of other members of congress and senators to demand the Republicans in control of the House allow a vote on proposed 'no-fly, no-buy' measure the protestors supported that would restrict gun sales for terror suspects prohibited from flying on an airplane.
Reached by phone late Wednesday afternoon, Nolan said such a protest wouldn't have been necessary back when he was a congressman in the 1970s.
"If anybody had a good idea in the form of a bill or an amendment, they got an opportunity to offer it, and have it debated and discussed," he said. "That rarely happens anymore."
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When members are allowed to speak nowadays, Nolan said, it's usually only for a few minutes. However, the protest let many members speak for as long as they want, he said.
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Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga. and Katherine Clark, D-Mass., first informed people of the protest via email, Nolan said. He was unsure how much time the protest would take, but said it would go until the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, allowed a vote.
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House staffers turned off cameras in the house that would normally broadcast floor activities, so the congress people taking part in the sit-in resorted to livestreaming it from their smartphones instead.
"The Speaker tried to shut it down by shutting the House down and turning off the speakers and the cameras," Nolan said. "The sergeant-at-arms tried to stop members of Congress from filming it, but the members refused."
Nolan himself was taking stills when someone from the office of the sergeant-at-arms told him to stop. He complied with the official because he didn't want a confrontation, he said.
Although some of the opposition to the "no fly, no buy" initiative has centered on a supposed lack of due process for being put on the no fly list, Nolan said that argument wasn't valid. The "no fly, no buy" legislation puts in place more due process protections for the list, he said.
"We as a society make judgements like this all the time, when public safety is concerned," he said. "The fact that someone has sworn allegiance to a terrorist group and wants to kill Americans, as far as I'm concerned, is sufficient evidence for me that they shouldn't be allowed to buy a gun."
Nolan's office released a written version of his short speech at the sit-in.
"I represent rural communities in northeastern Minnesota. Everybody in my neighborhood has shotguns and deer rifles-including me," Nolan said in the release. "I'm proud to strongly support the Second Amendment. But the fact is, when you're out duck hunting, you can only have three shells in your gun. Why? To protect ducks! That's right-we put limits on guns to protect ducks. So why can't we do the same for our elementary schoolchildren? For our friends and neighbors in places of worship? For our families who want to catch a Friday night movie? For our LGBTQ community who just want to go out for some fun and dancing on a Saturday night? Surely they deserve the same concern and safety that we afford to ducks."
Visit www.c-span.org/video/?c4606117/nolan-speaks-nobillnobreak-sit-in to see a video of what Nolan had to say.
