WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday expressed frustration with the lack of progress on legislation to prevent gun violence and presented his Senate colleagues with a path forward. Murphy laid out a plan to bring the bipartisan Fix NICS Act to the floor and allow for open debate and votes on three amendments offered by each party.

“It's been 32 days since the tragedy in Parkland. Every day since, there has been a series of tragedies all across this country. On average, 90 people every single day lose their lives to gun violence. And of course, it is now more than five years since the devastating tragedy in my state where 20 first graders lost their lives,” said Murphy. “I'm coming to the floor today to ask that we come to an agreement, Republicans and Democrats, by which we can have a debate, an open debate [this week] for the American public to see on the issue of gun violence.

“What I'm proposing, I think is reasonable, is practical, and is viable. We can get it done. Six total amendments to the Fix NICS Act, time-limited, perhaps only six hours – we could be in and out of that debate in a day. Three votes that are propounded by the Democratic side, three votes on measures propounded by the Republican side,” Murphy continued. “I don't think we should wait a day more, one day longer, before we have an open debate on the Senate floor about how we, as those entrusted with the safety of our children, do something about the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”

In addition to introducing the Fix NICS Act, Murphy is also the author of the Background Check Expansion Act to expand federal background checks to the sale or transfer of all firearms by private sellers, with certain reasonable exceptions.

The full text of Murphy’s remarks is below:

Thank you, Madam President.

Madam President, it's been 32 days since the tragedy in Parkland. I think that Senator Nelson may be coming to the floor very soon. But, frankly, every day since, there has been a series of tragedies all across this country. On average, 90 people every single day lose their lives to gun violence. There has been, over the course of the last year, a mass shooting on average every single day. Most of them aren't covered in the newspaper, but there is an incident in which four or more people are shot, on average, more than once per day in this country. And of course, it is now more than five years since the devastating tragedy in my state where 20 first graders lost their lives.

This is personal, deeply personal to all of us here in this chamber. It became very personal to me last week when my six-year-old came home from school to tell me about his active shooter drill. He's six, he's in kindergarten. And in his kindergarten class, they have a small, little bathroom in the class that all the kids use. He explained to me that for their active shooter drill, all 25 kids in his classroom – a whole bunch of five- and six-year olds – were shoved inside this tiny, little bathroom together, crunched together shoulder to shoulder and the door locked. Imagine how frightening that would be to a six-year-old child, even if they all didn't completely understand why they were there. He said to me when he got home that night, “daddy, I didn't like it.” 

That shouldn't be in the most powerful, affluent country in the world, that our children have to go through that. Never mind those that have actually had to face down someone with a gun inside their classroom or inside their school.

And what is devastating to the parents in Parkland and in Sandy Hook, what's devastating to the parents in Baltimore and in New Haven and in Chicago, is we refuse to have a debate on the Senate floor about how we can help address this epic mass slaughter, this gun violence epidemic in this country. And I have been taking pains over the course of the last six months to try to reach out across the aisle and find common ground with my colleagues on some commonsense legislation about changes to our gun laws. I'm proud to have worked with Senator Cornyn on a small bill that would encourage states to comply with existing law. The Fix NICS Act now has over 60 Republican and Democratic cosponsors here, enough so that it could overcome a cloture motion.

But I'm coming to the floor today to ask that we come to an agreement, Republicans and Democrats, by which we can have a debate, an open debate for the American public to see on the issue of gun violence before we break for a two-week Easter recess. We're going to go back to our states and have a wonderful time with our friends and with our family while many others continue to grieve all across this country, and many others will enter the ranks of those who grieve because during the 14 days that we will be away, thousands of people will die from gunshot wounds. And so I just can't imagine that we would make a decision to go home at the end of this week without having had a debate on the Senate floor for the American people to see about how we can try to respond to this cry, this call from the American public to do something.

These kids have been amazing. Literally hundreds of thousands of children walking out of school last week. Hundreds of thousands more students and their parents will be here in Washington for marches and 600 other marches all around the country this weekend. The polls tell us over and over again that nine out of ten Americans want us to take bold steps forward. Record numbers of American citizens believe that the laws as they exist today are not sufficient. This isn't a controversial issue outside of Washington. It's only controversial here, inside this chamber. But if we remain silent, if we refuse to have a debate on the Senate floor, we are failing the people that sent us here.

And so I'm coming to the floor today to propose a very reasonable path forward such that we can have a debate and some up-or-down votes on proposals this week. Of what I understand, there's still a lot of discussion happening with respect to the budget. Obviously, we have to get that done by the end of the week. But it's not ready yet, so we have time this week to have a short but meaningful debate on the issue of guns. And so here's what I'm proposing. I'm proposing that we have a unanimous consent agreement whereby we can have a time-limited debate. I would suggest perhaps not more than six hours. And at the end of that period of time we have six votes. Three votes that are propounded by the Democratic side, three votes on measures propounded by the Republican side.

I think it's no secret the amendments that Senate Democrats would offer, we would want to see a vote on universal commercial background checks to make sure that commercial sales of guns are subject to background checks. That's something that President Trump said he was for at the White House, has encouraged the Congress to work on. Let's have an up-or-down vote on background checks.

I think Democrats would clearly want to see this bipartisan compromise that's been worked out by Senator Blumenthal and Senator Graham with respect to protective orders, red flag orders come before the chamber. It simply makes sense that we do what Florida is doing. Pass a law that allows for law enforcement after a viable court process to take away weapons temporarily from someone who poses a threat. The problem in Florida was even if they had done something about this young man, they didn't have the legal ability to take his weapons away, even if he had made these kinds of threats in public. Florida's correcting that with their new law. We should do the same at the federal level. 

On our side, there's also interest in talking about the kind of weapons that are legal and the kind of weapons that are not. I'm a believer, of course, that there's a class of military-style tactical semiautomatic weapons that are best not in the hands of civilians. And obviously that issue divides our side too. So if that were to come up for a vote, you'd have Democrats for it and Democrats against it.

On the other two measures, you will have Republicans for it and Republicans against it. Republicans are for universal background checks. Some aren't. There are many Republicans on record being for these protective orders. There are others who won't for it.

But the American public will have no idea, our constituents will have no idea what we're willing to do and what we're not willing to do unless we have a debate. And this is our last chance before we go home. So what I'm proposing, I think is reasonable, is practical, and is viable. We can get it done. Six total amendments to the Fix NICS Act, time-limited, perhaps only six hours – we could be in and out of that debate in a day. I've talked with my leadership about it. I'm confident that Democratic leadership would support that path forward, and I propose it to Republican leadership tonight as we enter this week, as a means of having this debate that the American public so badly needs.

The alternative is unthinkable. Going home, letting over a month pass since Parkland, since this outcry for action from kids across America, and not even attempt to get something done here. I understand this issue is still difficult. I don't understand why my Republican colleagues won't support something like background checks, which is supported by 97% of Americans. It's pretty hard to find anything in America that's supported by 97% of Americans – apple pie, grandma probably doesn't get 97% approval ratings in this country. But universal background checks does. So yeah, I'm frustrated that my Republican colleagues just don't, you know, come to the floor and agree to pass something that has just mind-blowing universal support in the public. But what's more offensive is that we don't even try. What's more offensive to me is that we don't even make an attempt to put these measures on the floor of the Senate and let them be voted up or down.

I don't want the gun lobby to have a veto power over the legislation that gets passed here. But even worse than that is for the gun lobby to have veto power over what we even debate. A total of six amendments, a total of six hours of debate. I would argue that that is insufficient to meet the moment, but I get it, that time is running out, that there's not a lot of interest from some members of the Republican side to enter into this debate. So we are, we are very willing to have a short time-limited debate to see what we can get consensus on and what we can't get consensus on. And then whatever moves out of this building, whatever amendments get passed, then we live with it and live to fight another day.

It's been five years since the tragedy in my state. Now 32 days since Parkland. I don't think we should wait a day more, one day longer, before we have an open debate on the Senate floor about how we, as those entrusted with the safety of our children, do something about the epidemic of gun violence in this country.

I yield the floor.

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