CT Sen. Murphy Once Again Leads Charge To Change Gun Laws

CONNECTICUT — In the wake of two mass shootings in as many weeks, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT, again finds himself leading the charge in the U.S. Senate for stricter gun control legislation.

"What I learned in 2013 is that we have won the argument in the American public for universal background checks," Murphy said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" Tuesday. "We were just badly out-manned politically. The NRA had spent 40 years building up a political juggernaut, and the anti-gun violence movement was weak."

In the eight years that have followed, Democrats got busy assembling their own juggernaut, Murphy said.

"The reason today that we have a Senate and a House that supports universal background checks, and a president who's ready to sign it, is because we've been winning more races than we've been losing on the issue of guns," the senator told host Anderson Cooper.

Murphy became one of the leading and best-recognized gun control advocates in Washington D.C. following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook. That epochal turning point in the national discussion on gun violence occurred in his home district while Murphy was a U.S. Representative. He was elected to the U.S. Senate the same year.

Following another mass shooting in Orlando, FL in 2016, Murphy famously filibustered for nearly 15 hours. He was holding out for the Senate to vote on two bills, one that would expand background checks on gun buyers, and another that would ban gun sales to suspected terrorists. Murphy got the votes he sought, but not the outcomes: both bills were defeated.

Five years, and dozens of mass shootings later, and it's once more into the breach for the Connecticut lawmaker.

"The question is, can we get it done this year? I think there's a reason that [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell refused to bring a background checks vote before the Senate for the last five years. It's because he was afraid there wouldn't be 60 votes to pass it."

According to Murphy, there is a new groundswell of support for gun control legislation. He points to two bills passed this month in the House, one expanding background checks, the other patching a loophole that allowed Dylann Roof, who killed nine people n Charleston, S.C., in 2015, to purchase a handgun when he should have been barred.

In a statement released Mar. 11, Jason Ouimet, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, called the bills "a transparent attempt by gun control advocates in Congress to restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans under the guise of addressing the violent criminal culture in America. The truth, however, is that neither of these bills will do anything to solve that problem."

Murphy told Cooper that states with strong gun laws have lower rates of gun violence. He may have been referring to a Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health study that was published in the journal Epidemiology. The research found that homicide incidence was greatest in counties with weak with in-state laws and where the largest nearby population centers were in other states that also weak laws.

The senator said many Republican Senators are now faced with the choice of 90 percent of their constituents on one side supporting background checks, and a less potent gun lobby on the other. He contrasted Connecticut gun crime statistic with those of Florida, telling Cooper's audience that there is four times more gun crime in the Sunshine State.

"That's not a coincidence, that's not because our citizenry is fundamentally different, that's because we are a just a lot more careful making sure people who own weapons are law-abiding and don't have a history of serious mental illness."

A new ban on assault weapons is also on Murphy's radar, but he calls that a "heavier lift" than stronger background checks. A Federal Assault Weapons Ban was in effect from 1994-2004, and most research indicated the ban had little effect on crime. The senator said he would argue to start with a background checks bill and use that bipartisan coalition to move onto other reform.

"Don't count us out," Murphy said. "Just because we have failed in the past doesn't mean we will fail this year. A lot of things have changed."

One of the more significant changes for advocates like Murphy is now sitting in the Oval Office. Reuters is reporting that President Joe Biden is considering taking steps via executive actions to advance a gun control agenda.