Six members of “Gays Against Guns” were arrested today in the Hart Senate office building after staging a “die-in” demanding the passage of new gun control legislation. They called specifically for the approval of Senator Chris Murphy’s Background Check Expansion Act, and Senator Diane Feinstein’s “Assault Weapons Ban.” They also called for “federal funding of Center for Disease Control (CDC) gun violence research” as a “public health crisis.”

The group’s website explained that arrests were planned before the event took place:

We’ll need people willing to risk arrest. It will be VERY clear who will be arrested before we begin.

If you’re not willing or able to get arrested, we need you in one of the following categories:

We’ll need Human Beings (the people who dress in white, who are veiled, each of whom represent someone who’s lost their life to gun violence). You will remain silent and veiled during the action.

We’ll need “support” for those performing civil disobedience. You will hold the possessions of specific people risking arrest and be the person to contact for them.

We’ll need bystanders. You will amplify the action via social media, and you very presence will send a strong message to the press and the politicians we’re targeting.

It is unclear what the protesters are being charged with, but Kevin Hertzog, Cofounder of Gays Against Guns says that they will be released with only a $50 fine.

“When we decided to respond to the massacre in Vegas a couple weeks ago, we picked this date to come to DC and perform this action. The day before, there was another mass shooting,” Hertzog told News2Share. “I think it’s pretty obvious that guns are the problem.”

“If you have fewer guns, you’ll have less gun violence. Statistics prove it over and over again, but all you have to do is use the power of logic.”

“Background checks work. 2.6 prohibited sales have been stopped by Brady Background checks,” explained Julie Keller, an activist with the Brady Campaign and Gays Against Guns. “Something like 25% of gun purchases now are bought outside the law. We just want to close that loophole.

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