WASHINGTON – A week after concluding a nearly 15-hour filibuster and receiving a commitment from Senate Republicans to bring commonsense gun reforms up for a vote, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released the following statement after a bipartisan compromise to prevent terror suspects from purchasing firearms survived a Senate vote to dispense with the amendment. The motion to table the Collins Amendment failed by a vote of 46-52.

“The NRA made it a top priority to pass the motion to set aside the Collins amendment and they lost. Plain and simple. Today’s vote represented the largest defection of Republicans from the gun lobby in the modern history of the anti-gun violence movement, and it signals that the ground is shifting under our feet on this issue. Yes, Leader McConnell should have just moved straight to an up or down vote on this bipartisan, commonsense measure, but today’s vote is a signal that the gun lobby’s grip on Congress is slowly slipping away.

“Between the Senate filibuster, the House sit-in, and this vote, we have helped create a massive uprising of support in favor of laws to make our nation safer from gun violence, and while I know we are far from the finish line, this has been a momentous last eight days for this crusade.”

Murphy will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to take meaningful action to pass commonsense gun reform laws that will keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and make our communities safer. Murphy, who speaks regularly on gun violence prevention, has delivered 45 Voices of Victims speeches since joining the Senate in January 2013.