Democrats end 25-hour House floor protest over guns

Weary but jubilant House Democrats end their extraordinary sit-in on the chamber’s floor Thursday more than 24 hours after it began, a protest that let them broadcast their demands around the world for gun-control votes in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida nightclub.

There were no indications that Republicans who run the House had granted Democrats’ insistence for votes on bills strengthening background checks and barring firearms sales to people on the government’s no-fly list.

Even so, 25½ hours after they commandeered the chamber and blasted images of themselves on social media, Democrats file out and declare victory.

“We are going to win this struggle,” says Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the civil rights icon who helped lead the sit-in.

— AP