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Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., says he’s had enough of gun violence with no Congressional action.
In a tweet Wednesday morning, Murphy promised to mount a filibuster in the Senate to talk about the need to prevent gun violence in wake of the Orlando mass shooting early Sunday that killed 49 and injured 53.
“(We) have to try to do our part to stem this epidemic of gun violence and in particular this epidemic of mass shootings that plagues this nation, and no other industrialized nation in the world,” Murphy said. “There’s something fundamentally different happening in the United States that causes us to have this catastrophic level mass shootings on almost a monthly basis.”
Other Democratic senators, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., joined in the filibuster.
Murphy began the filibuster at 11:21 a.m., after Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced legislation before the filibuster started that would require notification to the FBI if anyone they had investigated bought a firearm. Nelson said it would not stop or even delay the person from buying the gun, it would only notify the FBI that it had happened.
“Why shouldn’t the FBI be notified that the person that just purchased the weapon had been on the terrorist watch list?” Nelson said. “It’s common sense. I don’t think even the NRA can object to this — and they are accustomed to getting their way around here — because this doesn’t in any way inhibit the purchase of that firearm.”
Murphy called for legislation that would prevent the mentally ill, those with serious criminal histories and those on the terrorist watch list from buying guns. He said he believed the Congressional body could unite on that issue and that Connecticut, the state of the Sandy Hook shooting, had had enough of inaction.
“I’m prepared to stand on this floor, and talk about the need for this body to come together on keeping terrorists away from getting guns ... for frankly, as long as I can, because I know that we can come together on this issue,” Murphy said.
Schumer called Congress “shameful” for not doing anything to curb gun violence in the four years since Sandy Hook.
You can watch the filibuster live here.