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Murphy brought debate on a Commerce, Science, Justice, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill to a halt as he called for two amendments to be added to strengthen gun control laws in the nation.
The junior Democratic senator from Connecticut was speaking out just days after 49 people were killed and over 50 were injured by a lone gunman in a gay nightclub in Orlando in what is now the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
"I am prepared to stand on the Senate floor and talk about the need to prevent gun violence for as long as I can. I've had #Enough," Murphy said via Twitter @ChrisMurphyCT.
Murphy and other Democratic senators — including Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Cory Booker of New Jersey — have two specific proposals:
- to close the terror gap – which would prevent individuals on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List from purchasing guns – and
- to expand background checks and make them universal.
An outspoken advocate on gun violence prevention, Murphy has delivered 45 Voices of Victims speeches since joining the Senate in January 2013 in reaction to the Sandy Hook School massacre, where 20 first-graders and six educators were killed in December 2012.
“It won't surprise you to know that for those of us that represent Connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything – anything – at all in the face of that continued slaughter isn't just painful to us," Murphy said in starting his filibuster. "It's unconscionable. I can't tell you how hard it is to look into the eyes of the families of those little boys and girls who were killed in Sandy Hook and tell them that almost four years later we've done nothing, nothing at all to reduce the likelihood that that will happen again to another family.
“Every set of facts is different, but what unites all of these shootings – from Littleton to Aurora to Newtown to Blacksburg to Orlando – is that the weapon of choice in every case is a gun. Often a very powerful gun, an AR-15 or AR-15 style gun that was designed for the military, for law enforcement to kill as many people as quickly as possible. What unites all of these incidents is our failure to do anything about it."
The filibuster began at about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, and speakers were lined up into the late evening.
Click here to watch a live feed of Murphy speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Highlights from Murphy’s opening remarks, or watch the video above:
“Our heart breaks collectively in this country for the citizens of Orlando and as I’ll speak in a moment, in particular in Connecticut. Our heart breaks for the people of Orlando because we know in a very real way the pain that exists there today, but we also know how that pain is really never ending, how the ripples of that pain are unceasing and unrelenting and they span generations. They span neighborhoods. They span years. Newtown is still putting itself back together, probably will be for a long time, and Orlando the same.
“But this is a different moment today than it was at the end of last week. There is a newfound imperative for this body to find a way to come together and take action, to try to do our part to stem this epidemic of gun violence, and in particular this epidemic of mass shootings that plagues this nation and no other industrialized nation in the world.
“... I don't think that we should proceed with debate on amendments to this [Commerce, Science, Justice, and Related Agencies Appropriations] bill until we have figured out a way to come together on, at the very least, two simple ideas that enjoy the support of 80 percent to 90 percent of Americans. Two ideas, two pieces of legislation that would have been potentially impactful with respect to the case in Orlando. That is one piece of legislation that Senator Feinstein has introduced that would simply say that if you are on a terror watch list, that you shouldn't be able to buy a weapon. Second, in order to make that protection meaningful, you also need to make sure that whenever a would-be shooter buys a gun, he goes through a background check.
“By acting, by coming together and finding a way to act on these two noncontroversial measures, I think we also send an important signal to the American public and to would-be murderers that we're serious about stemming this epidemic.
“And so I’m going to remain on this floor until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together on these two measures, that we can get a path forward on addressing this epidemic in a meaningful bipartisan way.
“Orlando is the worst mass shooting in American history. … Having come through the experience of Newtown, I’ve had enough.”
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