House Republicans had called a recess. C-SPAN had shut off the cameras in the chamber. And Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, the Iraq War veteran who lost both legs when the helicopter she was flying was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, had taken off her titanium prosthetic legs to join her fellow Democrats in the House to sit on the floor of the chamber to demand a vote on gun-control legislation.

Without C-SPAN’s video feed, members had turned to tweeting photos and livestreaming Democrats singing “We Shall Overcome” on Periscope and Facebook Live—a blatant violation of the decorous rules in the chamber. And so, to forestall her phone being taken away by Capitol Police, she slipped it into the hollow of one of her prosthetic legs. Poof!

Though the June sit-in didn’t succeed in bringing the legislation to the floor for a vote, Duckworth and her peers say they haven’t lost hope. They’ll continue fighting for what they call common-sense legislation, such as keeping suspected terrorists from buying a gun, and raising awareness of the issue. But Duckworth, who is in a tight Senate race, faces an unusual challenge on that score: Her opponent, incumbent Republican Mark Kirk, has repeatedly bucked GOP orthodoxy on gun control, joining Democrats to vote for gun restrictions.

At the office of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, just steps away from the Supreme Court, she sat down with us to talk about why she’s the better choice on gun control and how she developed a dark sense of humor about her lost legs.

GQ: During the sit-in to force a vote on gun control, you hid your phone in your prosthetic leg so it wouldn’t be taken away. What else have you hidden in there?

Tammy Duckworth: [hearty, extended laughs] Sometimes, you know, Sour Patch Kids. [laughs] My secret vice, Sour Patch Kids. Yeah, we didn't know. They ended up not doing anything, but at the time, we knew they'd cut off the feed, and you had to go off the floor to go use the restroom, and we thought when we were coming back, they might—there was a rumor going around that they were going to take our phones away. Because we were openly taking pictures and recording, which is against House rules. And we just thought, “Oh, they may actually take our phones away if we leave the floor.”

You’ve been a staunch advocate for gun control since you came to Capitol Hill as a congresswoman. But in the four years since, gun control has repeatedly failed to pass. What has to change for legislation to pass?

We need control of the Senate and we need to close the gap in the House.

Simple as that?

Yeah. There are bills out there right now, like universal background checks, that have Republican co-sponsors. But they'll never come up to the floor for a vote. Not unless Republicans are forced to compromise, and can't pass legislation without the help of Democrats. In 2013, 2014, we were able to do more bipartisan things, because the gap in the House was much smaller, and we had Democratic control in the Senate. Because Speaker Boehner had to rely on some Democratic votes.

I feel like moderate Republicans, who would support sensible gun violence legislation, are pushed aside by those folks who are absolutely beholden to the NRA. And so we never get the vote.

You’ve said that your experience in combat taught you to “never leave anyone behind.” How are you guided by that in the fight for gun control?

We leave innocents behind every single day. You can just go to Chicago, where little babies are being killed in their cribs while they're sleeping because of the gun violence that [is] happening in Chicago. Mothers pushing strollers are being killed by stray bullets in Chicago. And so much of this is partially a result of lax gun violence legislation.