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The House Democrats' sit-in for gun safety legislation ended Thursday, after 26 hours. It ended as it began, with Georgia Rep. John Lewis being introduced by his colleague, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, who said, "We started together fighting for the right to vote. Here we are today, asking for the right to vote."
Then Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, joined by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, surrounded Lewis along with all those colleagues who spent the night with him on the floor. Lewis motivated them one more time, vowing to come back in July and keep it up.
"It's not a struggle that lasts for one day or one week or one year. It is a struggle. We are going to win," he said. "We’re going to organize, we're going to mobilize. The people are with us, not just in our districts but all over America, around the world. Social media told the story." He said that they would come back in July "more determined than ever before," because "by sitting in, we're really standing up."
He quoted Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. saying "we have a right to protest for what is right … the American people are with us and people around the world are with us."
This round of the sit-in might have come to an end, but the issue has by no means gone away. The people are with them, as you can see in the video below.