Democrats refused to leave the floor during this recess and instead gave speeches, streamed online to over a million individuals via Periscope and Facebook, demanding Congressional action to combat gun violence.
The use of a discharge petition to force a vote was being considered by the chamber's Democratic leadership, but was not pursued due to the lengthy process involved, and a doubt that it would be able to obtain the requisite majority of 218 signatures from members of the House.
[11] Clark and Larson then asked Georgia congressman John Lewis, the Democrats' longtime Senior Chief Deputy Whip and a veteran of many sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement, to act as their leader.
[11] The plot was revealed to the remainder of the Democratic Caucus by Pelosi at a meeting on the morning of June 22, just prior to a long-planned appearance by the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.
After speeches in support of gun control legislation by Clark, Earl Blumenauer, David Cicilline, Rosa DeLauro, Chellie Pingree, Mike Capuano, Donna Edwards, Stacey Plaskett, and Jan Schakowsky, Lewis was recognized to speak by Republican congressman Dan Webster, who was temporarily occupying the chair; Lewis then asked fellow Democratic members to join him in the well of the House, and demanded a vote "today".
During the afternoon of June 22, Ryan said the Democrats' actions constituted a "publicity stunt", and that he would refuse to bind future Speakers to precedent by allowing a vote on any of the demanded measures.
However, Ryan was drowned out by boos and chants of "No Bill, No Break" from assembled Democrats (many of whom were holding aloft signs with pictures and the names of gun violence victims), and to rare heckling from the public gallery.
A few minutes into a presentation by California congressman Brad Sherman, Texas Republican Louie Gohmert angrily approached the assembled Democrats, and began a shouting match with Corrine Brown of Florida.
Gohmert, shouting that the attack had been caused by "radical Islam" and that guns were a non-issue, had to be restrained by fellow Republican members, and the Sergeant-at-Arms began to patrol the floor.
[22] At 2:30 a.m. on June 23, the House again convened with another measure, this time to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs, military construction, and the country's response to the Zika virus, similarly brought to a vote.
[19] He questioned its correlation with Democratic fundraising efforts, and noted bills with similar aims had already been defeated through bipartisan voting earlier in the week, contrasting that "regular order" with a "very dangerous precedent" for "chaos".
[7] On June 23, Billboard magazine published an open letter addressed to the United States Congress demanding that universal background checks become federal law.
The new rules included language against disorderly or disruptive conduct, in addition to bans against members of Congress taking pictures and video on the House floor, though an exemption for the latter occurs for events such as the State of the Union addresses.