Is Paul Ryan right about the sit-in being a publicity stunt?

Hopefully someone can clear this up for me. I want to root for the democrats on this sit-in. I support stricter gun control. But what exactly is the goal?

It seems to me that the democrats want a vote on a gun bill that won't pass if they do get a vote and most likely is unconstitutional and would never hold up anyway.

So, why do they want this vote so badly when they won't win it and the courts won't hold up any law that comes out of it? The only thing I can come up with is that they want the vote so that republicans will vote against a bill requiring background checks for terrorism suspects. They want to use that vote against republicans when they come up for reelection.

So, if that's the case, isn't Paul Ryan right? The democrats aren't actually doing anything here other than trying to pin an embarrassing vote on republicans that they can then use against them in future elections. It's a political move with no real goal to pass anything that will make the American people any safer from gun violence.

I'm all for embarrassing republicans, but it seems like we shouldn't be kidding ourselves into thinking that democrats are actually trying to accomplish anything here. They are playing a political game.