Speaker Ryan slams House sit-in as a 'stunt'

A visibly irritated House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed House Democrats' 16-hour sit-in on the lower chamber floor over gun-control measures in his weekly press briefing Thursday. "We are not going to allow stunts like this to stop us from carrying out the people's business," Ryan said, slamming the Democrats' effort as nothing more than a fundraising ploy. "[Democrats] are not trying to actually get this done through regular order. No, instead they're staging protests. They're trying to get on TV."

He also explained that Democrats had proposed Wednesday the gun measure they were fighting for, and it failed by a bipartisan vote in committee. "In this country, we do not take away people's constitutional rights without due process," Ryan said, before turning the focus to the threat of terror. "Our focus needs to be on confronting radical extremism."

Ryan also addressed the Supreme Court's Thursday ruling on President Obama's executive amnesty order, which effectively dealt a fatal blow to the effort to suspend deportations. Ryan called the decision "a win for the Constitution" and important "to restore the separation of power. Presidents don't write laws — Congress writes laws."

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The House has adjourned until after the July 4 holiday.