Click here to view video of Murphy’s remarks.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday joined U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representatives Adam Schiff (CA-28), Dwight Evans (PA-3), Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL-26), and Jason Crow (CO-6) at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol to re-introduce the Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence, legislation to ensure that the gun industry, including manufacturers, sellers, and interest groups, can be held liable when it acts with negligence or disregard for public safety. The legislation introduced today will repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which was signed into law in 2005.

June is Gun Violence Awareness Month and it’s now more than 100 days since the House passed universal background checks legislation. During his remarks, Murphy called on the U.S. Senate to take action on commonsense gun violence prevention legislation like the Bipartisan Background Checks Act. In January 2019, Murphy led 40 Senators in introducing the Senate counterpart bill, the Background Checks Expansion Act.

“I know, as an advocate, that you sometimes feel like you’re beating your head up against a wall when you come to Washington on the issue of gun violence. But I think it’s important to underscore how radically different the gun lobby’s reception is in Congress today than it was during that period of time in the 2000s,” said Murphy. “Background checks now has passed one half of the United States Congress and though it’s been over 100 days, and no action in the Senate, it’s yet another sign of how times are changing.”

The full text of Murphy’s remarks is below:

“Thank you very much Dick, thank you Adam and others for being here today.

“The real thanks, as Senator Blumenthal noted, is to the advocates behind us who are representative of hundreds of thousands of activists, of mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, teachers and coworkers who have risen up all across the country to make real a demand to the United States Congress that we reflect the will of the vast majority of the American public who cannot accept silence any longer from the United States Congress.

“When PLCAA passed in the mid-2000s, it was during the heyday of the gun lobby here in Washington. Literally anything that the gun industry asked for during that period of time, they got. And in many ways, PLCAA was a test of their legislative limits, because on its face, it sounds so absurd to carve out guns, the most dangerous of consumer products, from consumer safety standards. It sounds absolutely nuts to someone that you’re explaining this to on the street that a child’s toy gun is subject to greater liability protections for a purchaser than the owner of an actual gun. And yet, the gun lobby was so omnipotent during that decade that they could even get this liability exemption passed through the United States Congress.

“And I know, as an advocate, that you sometimes feel like you’re beating your head up against a wall when you come to Washington on the issue of gun violence. But I think it’s important to underscore how radically different the gun lobby’s reception is in Congress today than it was during that period of time in the 2000s, when their allies controlled every lever of power here prior to the 2018 election. The House, the Senate and the White House, the gun lobby had an agenda. It frankly wasn’t as ambitious as PLCAA, and they couldn’t get any of it called for a vote in the United States Congress. They couldn’t get a single piece of legislation passed because of the power of the groups lined up behind us. Background checks now has passed one half of the United States Congress and though it’s been over 100 days, and no action in the Senate, it’s yet another sign of how times are changing.

“We will pass a repeal of PLCAA, we will get this done but it’s going to require this movement continuing to believe in their growing power. Believing in the day when we, the 90 percent of Americans who want change to happen, are just as powerful in this place as the gun lobby was during the decade when they got legislation like the Gun Liability Exemption Act passed. There is lifesaving technology out there that is there for the taking, but so long as the industry has no financial reason to invest in the development of that technology because they cannot be sued in court, that technology doesn’t see the light of day, as it has in so many other industries where the risk of lawsuit from a defective product has made products safer and safer.

“So there was a day when the gun lobby was so powerful as to get this legislation that we’re seeking to repeal passed. It was a high water mark for the gun industry, a high water mark for the NRA, and the good news as we reintroduce this legislation, is that our day, the American people’s day, when we get to set the agenda on public safety, when we get to make sure that what 70, 80, 90 percent of Americans want becomes law, is coming soon. Part of the reason why I know which direction this debate is coming and is going is because of all of the fantastic new members of Congress who have come here with their personal stories, and with their conviction to make the change happen.”

 

###