Chris Murphy gun control filibuster main subject gun control
On June 15, 2016, in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, launched a filibuster in the United States Senate, promising to hold the floor "for as long as I can" or until Congress acts on gun control legislation.Murphy eventually secured a commitment from Senate leadership to hold a vote on two measures that he supports—one to expand background checks and another to block suspected terrorists from purchasing weapons—and ended his filibuster after 14 hours and 50 minutes, making it the tenth-longest filibuster in the U.S. Senate since 1900.Background and goals
Murphy represents Connecticut in the Senate, where 20 schoolchildren and six educators were killed in December 2012 in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Murphy stated on the Senate floor during the filibuster, "For those of us that represent Connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything, anything at all in the face of that continued slaughter isn't just painful to us, it's unconscionable."Murphy was seeking a vote on legislation that would expand background checks required for weapons purchases, and on a measure sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California that would allow the U.S. to ban sales of guns and explosives to people listed on government watch lists of suspected terrorists. The Feinstein Amendment came to the Senate floor one day after 14 people were killed by Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik in the San Bernardino terrorist attack in December 2015, but failed on a party-line vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.On the day that Murphy began his filibuster, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said that he was in talks with Feinstein about possible compromise legislation on blocking gun sales to terrorism suspects. Separately, Everytown for Gun Safety, a pro-gun control group supported by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said that it was in compromise talks with Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, who made a brief statement on the Senate floor in favor of some sort of bipartisan agreement.