Chris Murphy

2022 - 5 - 26

Post cover — Image courtesy of "USA TODAY"

'What are we doing?': Sen. Chris Murphy gives emotional speech on ... (USA TODAY)

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy made a plea for lawmakers to find common ground and prevent school shootings from happening again.

What are we doing?" Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely," Murphy said. "Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they're going to be next.

Texas school shooting: Sen. Chris Murphy speech says it all (Los Angeles Times)

After 21 people, including 19 children, are shot to death at a school, this country must decide if it accepts a culture of self-imposed mass murder.

As voters, we are responsible for electing officials who will see those laws passed, who will see this crisis of gun violence for what it is and do everything in their power to end it. So what are we doing? So what are we doing? I remember in the early days of the pandemic, when my youngest was struggling with online learning, she wiped her tears and looked at me with a grin saying: “Well, at least I don’t have to worry about school shootings.” Racist people can do many terrible things but they can kill 10 people in a grocery store or 23 people at a Walmart only if they have a specific kind of gun. Like many, I thought the horror of Sandy Hook would yank gun control out of the swamp of gun-lobby-controlled politics and into the realm of public safety. I’m tired of living in fear for my children, my friends, my life, my country, because some people think protecting the right to own guns designed for mass slaughter is more important than protecting the lives of Americans. Having located the source of the sound, I nearly vomited in relief. My kids grew up in a home without guns not because I hate guns, but because they went to schools that had regular shooter drills. I was in the car before I could even think clearly. A longtime supporter of gun control legislation, Murphy was specifically addressing his colleagues in the Senate chambers. He was certainly speaking for most Americans, the vast majority of whom support some form of gun control, including a ban on semiautomatic weapons.

'What are we doing?' Chris Murphy asks fellow lawmakers in wake ... (Mashable)

Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who formerly represented Sandy Hook, gave a viral speech in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school ...

You cannot explain this through a prism of mental illness because we’re not an outlier on mental illness," Murphy told reporters, according to the Guardian. "We’re an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their arms on firearms. According to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, people with mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it. It is our choice to let it continue." Sen. Murphy is calling for changes to legislation because, as he put, "this happens nowhere else but here in the United States of America." But his calls might be landing on deaf ears. "It is a choice. "Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, or putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing," he asked his Republican colleagues.

Sen. Chris Murphy calls for urgent gun reform following Texas ... (CBS News)

Murphy, who represented the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School, urged colleagues to take legislative action.

"I think Democrats need to be very clear that we are not going to insist on the perfect," he said. "He had weapons that were just as, if not more, powerful than the police had," Murphy said. "Outside Washington D.C. there's more consensus on common sense gun legislation than on almost any other topic."

US Sen. Chris Murphy tries to get talks going on limited gun ... (OPB News)

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Ct., speaks on a phone with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Wednesday morning, May 25, 2022 on Capitol Hill. Murphy, on the Senate floor on ...

"So if you make a law and they violate the law then you say that Congress didn't do anything." "That's the kind of law that could have made a difference in this case," Collins said. "Everyone wants to go to 'filibuster, filibuster, filibuster, just get rid of it, that's the easy way out,'" Manchin said. "The federal government should take responsibility for improving our background check capacity," Romney said. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said lawmakers need to start with modest changes, like background checks because those are the bills that have a chance of passing. "How many parents yesterday had to find out that their child was murdered in their classroom and to think the federal government would do absolutely nothing about it is just crazy," Kelly said. "You know, those are the places where we might be able to get some compromise and I get it that that's not enough." "Let's talk about what can be done. "Unfortunately, there's a community of victims from Sandy Hook to Parkland to Charleston, who can help you understand how they manage this grief," Murphy said. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., remains opposed to voting to end the filibuster, for any reason. It's tougher to find the next five." Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., are among the Republicans who say they are talking with Murphy about taking potential action.

PolitiFact - Fact-checking Sen. Chris Murphy on the ages of mass ... (PolitiFact)

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has worked to enact restrictions on guns ever since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtow.

That’s largely accurate when looking at school shootings alone, according to a Washington Post database of school shootings since 1999. A large-scale RAND study found that 26% of mass public shooters between 1976 and 2018 were younger than age 25. When the Post analyzed these shootings, it found that more than two-thirds were committed by shooters under the age of 18. The Post found more than 200 incidents that met the project’s criteria. The speech made the rounds of news shows and was widely shared on social media. "I want to get rid of these assault weapons," Murphy said.