Democrats from Minnesota's congressional delegation joined colleagues in U.S. House of Representatives chamber Wednesday afternoon for a sit-in aimed at forcing votes on gun control. Representatives Rick Nolan, Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum and Senators Al Franken (pictured above) and Amy Klobuchar were early arrivals. They took seats to hold the floor in protest of the Republican leadership's refusal to bring gun control bills to a vote.

"When I go home to Minnesota, people ask me why don't we do anything?" McCollum said in an interview. "I hear that about guns, about funding for the zika virus, about the government shut down, about transportation. This is building up."

McCollum said House parliamentrary rules need to change so members can "go to the floor, do your work and vote."