Click here to view video of Murphy’s remarks.

WASHINGTON – One month after 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and in honor of the National School Walkout, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) walked out of the U.S. Capitol Building where he addressed thousands of students rallying for Congress to take action on common sense gun safety reforms.

“There is no great social change movement in this country that has not been led by the youth of America. It is not going to be easy. There are going to be defeats before you reach final victory. But also defining of the great social movements in this country is that the ones that saw adversity and pushed through it are the ones that we read about in our history books,” said Murphy. “I know in the end, that we will beat the NRA, that we will kick out members of Congress who don’t listen to you, and we will deliver change in the end.”

Earlier today, Murphy took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to read aloud the names of Connecticut victims of gun violence. A video of his floor speech is available here.

Murphy continues to demand Congress take action on common sense gun safety reforms. He is a co-author of the bipartisan Fix NICS Act to ensure federal and state authorities accurately report relevant criminal history records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. He also joined U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in introducing the Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act, a bill to close a loophole that allows people to use bump-stocks to turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons. 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 at the rally is below:

Let me tell you what happened in my life yesterday. My 6-year-old went to his kindergarten class yesterday, and got locked in a bathroom with 24 of his classmates for an active shooter drill. That should never happen in the United States of America – no one should have to go through that.

And I just have a couple simple questions for the people here, for the students here, who are going to lead this movement. I want to know, are you prepared to do whatever it takes to beat the gun lobby? Are you going to hold every single person in this building accountable for your safety? Are you going to vote out of office the people who take the gun lobby money and put your safety at risk? Are you, the students of America, going to lead this movement to victory?

There is no great social change movement in this country that has not been led by the youth of America. And I just have one simple message for you. It is not going to be easy. There are going to be defeats before you reach final victory. But also defining of the great social movements in this country is that the ones that saw adversity and pushed through it are the ones that we read about in our history books.

And so by answering ‘yes’ to all of those questions, I know in the end, that we will beat the NRA, that we will kick out members of Congress who don’t listen to you, and we will deliver change in the end.

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