With gun control advocates crammed behind him, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison asked his mother why she left him a message last week telling him to get to the House floor for Democrats' sit-in to push for tougher laws on firearms.

"The very obvious reason is I gave birth to my own private lobbyist," replied Clida Martinez Ellison, as people listening over speakerphone in Ellison's North Side office chuckled. "And I could use him at a crucial time like this."

Ellison caused a stir on social media after his scheduler walked in during a meeting and handed him a note that said, "Your mom called and wants you on the floor!" The man he was meeting with posted it on Twitter. On Thursday evening, he invited people concerned about gun control to join him for a follow-up conversation with his mother.

His mother, who has five children, said she lives in Detroit "where gun violence is just endemic -- it's awful." She added that as a social worker, she met a woman the other day whose car had been pelted with bullets.

They talked about her upbringing in rural Louisiana, where family members hunted regularly -- "I mean, bird gumbo is delicious," his mother said – and stressed that they did not want to ban guns.

Following a mass shooting in Orlando that left 50 people dead, Ellison and other Democrats have been pushing for legislation that requires universal background checks for people buying guns, and that would ban terrorist suspects on the "no fly" list from purchasing firearms. Ellison acknowledged that lawmakers needed to make some changes to the second bill to preserve people's due process rights.

The night before their phone conversation, he met with the family of Birdell Beeks, a grandmother who was killed by stray gunfire in north Minneapolis. Police have not arrested any perpetrators. Ellison mentioned Beeks' case on the House floor last week when making the case for stronger gun control.

He's planning a forum on gun violence soon and said the Capri Theater on Broadway Avenue would later this month screen "Making a Killing," a movie about the gun industry.

"Do you feel that if people come together we can actually get sane, sensible gun laws in our country?" Ellison asked his mother.

She she did.

"Whenever you sit in again, let me know and I'll be there," she said.