Senator Chris Murphy quote about gun violence

According to the Gun Violence Archive, at least 128 mass shootings have occurred in the United States so far this year.

Senator Chris Murphy formerly represented the Sandy Hook community as a congressman. He wrote the Safer Communities Act with Republican Senator Marco Rubio. This was the first federal legislation on gun safety in 30 years. The bill extended background checks for gun purchasers under age 21, clarified firearms license requirements, partially closed the boyfriend loophole, and further criminalized arms trafficking and straw purchases. The bill was passed by both houses and signed into law by President Biden last year.

This year, Murphy has 47 cosponsors in the Senate who support expanded background checks. Murphy has been introducing expanded background checks in Congress since 2017. The vast majority of Americans (90%) support expanding background checks.

“I just don't understand why we choose to live like this. Why we choose to make our kids fear for their lives when they walk into their schools, why we choose to have children who grew up in violent neighborhoods fear for their lives when they walk to and from school. Only in America does this happen. And you can’t explain in through a prism of mental illness, or a lack of school security. The thing that’s different in the United States is the number of guns, the number of high-powered weapons of mass destruction and the ease with which we allow criminals and dangerously mentally ill people to get those guns. So, we’ve got to change the nation’s gun laws, we’ve got to put more trauma resources into our schools, but, doing nothing cannot be an option.”

– Senator Chris Murphy (D) Connecticut