U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy stood on the floor of the Senate for 15 hours Wednesday into Thursday, never sitting, in a filibuster to prompt action on stalled gun safety legislation. The Democrat from Connecticut finally sat down after Republican colleagues agreed to bring two measures to a vote on Monday.
These are excerpts from Murphy’s speech:
“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.”
“I have been so angry that this Congress has mustered absolutely no response to mass shooting after mass shooting, in city after city that is plagued by gun violence. I’m not saying we aren’t doing important work but there are 30,000 people dying every day on the streets of this country. And those that they leave behind — their moms and their dads and their little sisters and brothers — don’t get the total indifference that we portray.”
“No set of laws can allow us to say with certainty that there won’t still be killings in Chicago, in New Haven, and Los Angeles. There’s no legislative guarantee that there won’t be another Omar Mateen. But the idea that we don’t even try, the idea that we don’t even proffer ideas on this floor, debate them — it’s offensive to those of us that have lived through these.”
“Sandy Hook was three and a half years ago, and Congress hasn’t passed a single measure that would make the next mass shooting, the next murder of kids in this country less likely. The American public have already made up their mind that they want a background check system that captures potential terrorists. They want to make sure that everybody that buys a gun through a commercial sale has to prove that they’re not a criminal before they buy it. The American people have made up their mind.”