House Speaker Paul Ryan sent lawmakers packing for the holiday break early Thursday morning after a raucous, hours-long sit-in waged by congressional Democrats failed to force a vote on gun control measures.

As Ryan decried the protest as a "publicity stunt" -- complete with loud chants and blankets and live-streaming -- Democrats claimed they nevertheless had made "some progress" on the issue.

The House adjourned around 3:15 a.m. ET Thursday, and even as Republicans left the buildings, some Democrats stayed on the House floor repeating their chant “No bill no break!” and waving papers with the names of gun victims written in black. A core group lingered for a while on the House floor wrapped in blankets and resting on pillows.

The protest finally came to an end early Thursday afternoon, hours after Republicans held a final vote on the Zika response and, save for a short upcoming session, sent lawmakers home until July 5. The sit-in lasted a total of over 25 hours.

Democrats declared success in dramatizing the arguments for action to stem gun violence, despite the failure to conjure a vote.

"Just because they cut and run in the dark of night, just because they have left doesn't mean we are taking no for an answer," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"We won't stop until the job is done," the Californian declared to fellow Democrats camped out in the well of the House in the early hours of the morning, saying the party had changed "the dynamic of what happens" concerning guns.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said the public shouldn't be happy with a Republican majority that shut down the House and disregarded "the unfinished business of the American people."

Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who had participated in the civil rights sit-ins in the South in the 1960s, declared Thursday that “some progress” was made in the lawmakers’ efforts to get the attention of the nation to recognize the need for a vote on gun control legislation.

“We have other bridges to cross. And when we come back in July, we start it all over again,” he added.

Ironically, Lewis was also once on a terror watch list in what he said was a mix-up – and now is backing the controversial legislation to keep people on the no-fly list from getting guns.

Republicans said their colleagues had accomplished nothing other than disrupting the business of the House to score political points.

Pressure had been building on both sides of the Capitol in the wake of the shooting rampage at a Florida gay nightclub earlier this month that killed 49 people and injured 53 others. The assailant also died in the incident. The mass shooting followed similar tragic incidents over the past years including the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

The agitation for action caused a Senate filibuster last week and led to the chaos on the House floor that lasted well into Thursday.

A burst of activity in the middle of the night, including recorded votes on some other issues such as the Zika virus, capped more than 15 straight hours of Democratic protests. The spectacle captured the attention of a Washington gridlocked on guns despite the slaughter in Orlando. Senate Democrats undertook a nearly 15-hour filibuster last week in fighting for the same cause.

House Republicans used their prerogatives as the majority party to muscle through the bill funding the Zika crisis with no time for debate, overruling Democrat's objections and then moving to adjourn the House into next month as Democrats cried "Shame, Shame!"

Republicans shut off the cameras in the House gallery throughout most of the protest, but Democrats used their cellphones to capture the action, and C-SPAN carried the feeds live in an unprecedented move.

Ryan said the bill pushed by the Democrats to expand background checks and keep people on the no-fly list from getting guns would take away people’s constitutional rights and deprive them of due process. He noted that similar legislation was already rejected in the Senate earlier this week, along with three others bills.

The protest began around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, unfolding on the House floor with little advance warning from the Democrats.

By evening, 168 House Democrats — out of 188 — and 34 Senate Democrats joined the protest, according to the House minority leader's office. One after another, they spoke of the need for gun control and talked of constituents who had been killed. Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, whose husband former Rep. John Dingell is a longtime NRA supporter, won thunderous applause and a standing ovation after she talked in personal terms about her experience growing up in a home with gun violence.

Scattered around the House floor were signs reading "Disarm Hate." Visitors watched from the galleries. A crowd of several hundred gun control advocates gathered outside the Capitol and cheered as Democrats addressed them.

The sit-in — in which Lewis played a leading role — had the look of a 1960s-style protest, as some lawmakers sat on the floor, others in their seats. The House chamber grew increasingly chaotic as the night wore on, and some lawmakers took breaks on pillows and blankets.

Republicans had staged a similar protest in 2008. Democrats controlling the House at the time turned off the cameras amid a GOP push for a vote to expand oil and gas drilling. Republicans occupied the floor, delivering speech after speech after Pelosi, then the House speaker, sent lawmakers bolting to their August recess. Pelosi at that time had ordered the cameras turned off.

C-SPAN, a cable and satellite network that provides continual coverage of House and Senate floor proceedings, does not control the cameras. They're run on authorization by legislative leaders. Although the cameras were turned off Wednesday, lawmakers relied on social media to transmit video, using Facebook, Twitter and Periscope.

C-SPAN broadcast live video streamed on Periscope and Facebook from lawmakers' accounts. Democrats posted the Capitol's main telephone number, which was overwhelmed, and urged constituents to call and request a vote. They also encouraged tweeting under the hashtag #NoBillNoBreak.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.