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While House Democrats Were Sitting In, Gun Safety Advocates Rallied Outside The Capitol

Lucy McBath, left, and her husband Ron Davis participate in a gun control rally as part of the “No More Names: National Drive to Reduce Gun Violence,” a 25-state national bus tour, at the Georgia Capitol, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Atlanta. The family lost their 17-year-old son Jordan Davis to gun violence in 2012. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JAIME HENRY-WHITE
Lucy McBath, left, and her husband Ron Davis participate in a gun control rally as part of the “No More Names: National Drive to Reduce Gun Violence,” a 25-state national bus tour, at the Georgia Capitol, Monday, June 24, 2013, in Atlanta. The family lost their 17-year-old son Jordan Davis to gun violence in 2012. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JAIME HENRY-WHITE

As almost 170 members of Congress held the House floor on Wednesday and through the night into Thursday, Lucy McBath stood beside them.

McBath’s son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed for playing loud music in his car at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station in 2012. In the years since, she has become an advocate for gun reform and this week, she stood outside the Capitol during the entirety of the sit-in, speaking, singing, chanting, and joining other gun safety advocates in supporting the lawmakers inside the chamber.

“I felt like a reincarnation of my dad,” McBath told ThinkProgress, noting that her father was the Illinois branch president of the NAACP for 20 years. “This is what my father lived for. This is what he fought for.”

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The “No Bill No Break” sit-in was not successful in demanding that the House hold debate before leaving for its July 4th break — Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) dismissed the chamber until after the holiday. And while the Senate’s 15-hour filibuster led to a vote on four gun-related measures, all four failed. But McBath said the overwhelming support both inside and outside the Capitol this week was a success in and of itself.

She called the experience of standing beside the 25-hour sit-in “one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done in my life.”

“It was profound,” she said. “People of all age groups, ethnicities, religious affiliations, it didn’t matter. We were all there collectively for the good of America. Keeping us safe. And it was just amazing.”

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, joined by, from left, House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn of S.C., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2016, after House Democrats ended their sit-in protest. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, joined by, from left, House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn of S.C., Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2016, after House Democrats ended their sit-in protest. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, hundreds of protesters stood outside the Capitol to show their support. At one point, several Democratic lawmakers including Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) came outside to speak with the crowds.

Throughout the night, McBath — the national spokesperson for Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America — spoke about her son and what it meant for her to lose a child to gun violence.

While her son’s death motivated her to become involved in activism, she told ThinkProgress that the Orlando shooting — in which a gunman targeted a gay nightclub — was the “tipping point” in her fight for gun reform.

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“I understand and know first hand what it’s like to be discriminated against, and have that racism and discrimination played out through gun violence on someone that I love,” she said. “That was a tipping point for me. Jordan was too, but that was absolutely a tipping point because I felt like okay, now we’ve gone beyond racism. Now we’ve gone beyond classism. And now we’re getting into shooting and gunning people down for the way that they choose to live their lives.”

“We can’t tolerate this kind of thing,” she continued. “We can’t tolerate using gun violence as a way to silence a whole race of people or a whole culture of people or a whole religious sector of people. We cannot allow the gun laws in this country to be used to advocate this kind of violence against anyone.”