The National Rifle Association (NRA) and their congressional sympathizers refuse to allow for votes on gun safety legislation, saying there is no proof that they will make Americans safer. So I'd like to suggest a less-than-scientific experiment. Since the NRA insists the real answer is expanded access to guns and more concealed weapons, House Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll Trump dismisses climate change role in fires, says Newsom needs to manage forest better Jimmy Kimmel hits Trump for rallies while hosting Emmy Awards MORE should lead by example and permit Republican delegates to their Cleveland convention to carry concealed weapons and assault weapons on the convention floor.

They won't, obviously.

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After 20 little girls and boys were slaughtered by a killer with an assault weapon in their Sandy Hook Elementary School first-grade classrooms in 2012, Congress blocked any and all attempts to pass reasonable and commonsense gun safety legislation. Instead, they offered to arm teachers.

After nine congregants of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina were gunned down while they prayed in 2015, we got more of the same.

Last month, 49 men and women were senselessly murdered at a gay nightclub in Orlando in the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history. Congress stood poised to offer another moment of silence and nothing else.

But there's reason for hope. It began with a handful of House members walking out of the chamber during a moment of silence. It has turned into a full-blown rebellion.

Days after Orlando, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and few of his colleagues were fed up with another meaningless and insulting moment of silence. In a small act of defiance to Ryan's inaction on gun safety, they walked out.

This was followed by Sen. Chris Murphy Christopher (Chris) Scott MurphyDemocratic senator calls for 'more flexible' medical supply chain to counter pandemics The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Don't expect a government check anytime soon GOP chairman to release interim report on Biden probe 'in about a week' MORE (D-Conn.), joined by more than three dozen of his Democratic colleagues, in a 15-hour filibuster demanding votes on gun safety. A week later, House Democrats, led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), captured the public's attention during a 24-hour sit-in on the House floor to protest GOP inaction on gun safety legislation.

Ryan called it a "publicity stunt." What choice do we have when the NRA and their allies in Congress hold the American people hostage on gun safety?

There was a time not so long ago when pundits and pollsters would have declared these actions political suicide, especially with a general election only three-and-a-half months away.

Since passage of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included several get-tough-on-crime measures and a federal ban on assault weapons, a majority of members of Congress have embraced the NRA's extreme party line or they have been cowered by the NRA's perceived political clout.

President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonBattle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight Sunday shows - Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death dominates Bill Clinton on GOP push to fill Ginsburg vacancy: Trump, McConnell 'first value is power' MORE said in 1995 that the fight over the assault weapons ban cost 20 Democrats reelection and the NRA was the force behind the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. While the issue of gun safety clearly had an impact on the 1994 election, so too did controversies regarding gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military, the president's economic plan that included tax hikes on the wealthy, and a failed healthcare reform effort. And just for good measure, the Democratic majority was showing signs of weakness after 40 straight years of one-party rule — witness the House bank scandal.

Instead of understanding the political complexity underlying the loss of the House majority, conventional wisdom took hold that the NRA's war chest and self-reported membership of 5 million was insurmountable.

But a majority of the 323 million Americans living in our country today support pragmatic measures to improve public safety by requiring universal background checks and measures to stop individuals with links to terrorism from obtaining firearms.

In response to Sandy Hook, Charleston and now Orlando, the NRA and their allies in Congress insist that these measures simply don't work. And instead of restricting access to guns, the answer lies in giving Americans greater access to unlimited firepower and allowing for concealed weapons in schools, churches and bars.

So I ask the NRA and their friends in Congress to get rid of the metal detectors and the uniformed security and turn loose your armies of patriots with concealed firearms. After all, Wayne LaPierre famously said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." They should have nothing to fear, right?