WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday joined gun violence survivors and gun violence prevention advocates, including Brady, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, to applaud the strength of the gun violence prevention movement in the face of the NRA’s extreme agenda. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in NYSRPA v. City of New York, a case that could put important gun safety laws at risk.

On the NRA, Murphy said: “They're going to try to get the courts to protect them, because the voters won't protect them any longer. Because we—for the first time in a long time—we the anti-gun violence movement are finally stronger than the gun lobby is.”

On the strength of the anti-gun violence movement, Murphy said: “That's why we're flipping seats all over the country. That's why we have these guys running for the hills, retiring in droves…The great social change movements, the ones that you read about in the history books, those are the ones that knew about the righteousness of their cause that knew that the status quo would eventually fall and to stop at nothing until they save lives and changed history. That's what great social change movements are about. That's what we are.”

Murphy closed: “So I am dressed today to fight on the inside of these buildings because I know that you guys are dressed and ready to fight on the outside of these buildings.”

A full transcript of Murphy’s remarks can be found below.

“Hey, this is what a movement looks like, right?

“Now I am not dressed for the rain, but I am dressed for a movement, right? And listen, what I know is that they are going to increasingly be here because they can't beat us out there.

“They're going to try to get the courts to protect them, because the voters won't protect them any longer. Because we—for  the first time in a long time—we the anti-gun violence movement are finally stronger than the gun lobby is.

“That's why we're flipping seats all over the country. That's why we have these guys running for the hills, retiring in droves. And we aren't going to stop because here's what I know—I know as a student of history, that the great social change movements are not the ones that gave up when they hit an obstacle. They are not the ones that went home when they hit a bump in the road.

“The great social change movements, the ones that you read about in the history books, those are the ones that knew about the righteousness of their cause that knew that the status quo would eventually fall and to stop at nothing until they save lives and changed history. That's what great social change movements are about. That's what we are.

“And so this radical agenda to try to take away our ability to protect our kids—and I dropped off my kids this morning at public elementary schools that do active shooter drills, readying for what kids believe today is the inevitability that they are going to get shot at—they want to take our right away to make change to pass laws that actually make our streets safer, that prevent the kind of episodic gun violence that plagues American cities. They want to take that right away and we're not going to let them do that.

“So I am dressed today to fight on the inside of these buildings because I know that you guys are dressed and ready to fight on the outside of these buildings. So it just warms my heart to see big crowd after big crowd, to see rally after rally, to see headquarters after headquarters filled with volunteers, because the stronger you are outside, the stronger you make us inside.

“Thank you, everybody.”

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