They were there 15 hours. Even if the cameras were turned off by the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, photos and videos taken with iPhones still got out to social media. Members of the Democrats in the Senate also joined in the protest.
However, Democrats aren't the only ones who have done this, Republicans did it too, when Democrats were the majority in the House.
The message that they are opportunistic morons? Yes.
I think the message was, "We are ineffectual, but we want a LOT of media coverage showing how very MUCH we care about this issue....even though we are really not capable of doing anything about it."
Yes. Now they have to clean the carpets.
