Chris Murphy, who led Democrats in holding floor for more than 14 hours, says deal was struck with Republicans for vote on background checks and terror watchlist 
 
 A marathon Democratic filibuster in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre came to an end in the US Senate on Thursday morning after Republicans apparently agreed to hold votes on tighter gun control measures. 
 
 Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, led the filibuster which lasted for more than 14 hours along with several colleagues. In the early hours of Thursday morning in Washington, Murphy said a deal had been struck with Republican leaders to hold votes on key measures. 
 
 Murphy yielded the floor at 2.11am, saying he had won commitments from Republican leaders that they would hold votes on amendments to expand background checks and ban gun sales to suspected terrorists. 
 
 Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) I am proud to announce that after 14+ hours on the floor, we will have a vote on closing the terror gap & universal background checks 
 
 Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) This is one step. The fight is far from over. But there are millions of voices calling for change. And we cannot stop pushing #Enough 
 
 The Connecticut senator had promised at the outset that he would remain on the Senate floor “until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together” on gun control. 
 
 As the filibuster continued, updates and messages of support were posted on social media with the hashtags #enough and #holdthefloor. 
 
 Murphy evoked the Newtown school shooting in his state in 2012 in a plea that came as the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, said he would meet with the National Rifle Association (NRA) about the terror watchlist and gun purchases. 
 
 
 
 “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 said. 
 
 “There hasn’t been a debate scheduled on the floor of the Senate,” Murphy said as the filibuster neared an end. “There hasn’t been a debate scheduled in the committees … There are 30,000 people dying” annually in the country, he said. 
 
 Murphy called the massive shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando “devastating” for many and said it had been frustrating for people to watch as the Senate “has done absolutely nothing” in response to mass shootings in recent years. 
 
 Starting around 11.20am on Wednesday, senator after senator took to the floor of the chamber to argue for legislation. The Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin cited a list of multiple homicides in her state in recent years. 
 
 Murphy began speaking at 11.21am and was still standing more than 10 hours later, showing few signs of fatigue. By Senate rules he had to stand at his desk to maintain control of the floor. When asked by another senator how he was feeling just before 7.30pm, Murphy said rehabilitation from a back injury in his 20s had helped him build up endurance. 
 
 
 
 As tourists and staff – and at one point in the evening, Murphy’s two sons – looked on from the galleries, the senator maintained his filibuster to a mostly empty chamber, save a series of Democratic senators who joined him and made their own speeches through the day. Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Cory Booker of New Jersey stayed with Murphy on the floor for most of the debate. 
 
 The election-year fight over gun control in the wake of the shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando pits strong proponents of the second amendment right to bear arms against those arguing for greater restrictions on the ability to obtain weapons. Trump, who has the endorsement of the NRA, told a rally in Georgia: “I’m going to save your second amendment.” 
 
 It has been nearly a decade since Congress made any significant changes to federal gun laws. In April 2007 Congress passed a law to strengthen the instant background check system after a gunman at Virginia Tech who killed 32 people was able to purchase his weapons because his mental health history was not in the instant background check database. 
 
 
 
 Murphy is seeking a vote on legislation that would let the government bar sales of guns and explosives to people it suspects of being terrorists. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, offered a similar version of the amendment in December, a day after an extremist couple killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, but the Republican-run Senate rejected the proposal on a near party-line vote. Murphy also wants a vote to expand background checks. 
 
 The Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, was added to a government watchlist of individuals known or suspected of being involved in terrorist activities in 2013, when he was investigated for inflammatory statements to co-workers. But he was pulled from the database when that investigation was closed 10 months later. 
 
 The NRA said it was happy to meet Trump and reiterated its support for a bill from the Texas Republican senator John Cornyn that would let the government delay firearms sales to suspected terrorists for up to 72 hours. Prosecutors would have to persuade a judge to block the transaction permanently, a bar Democrats and gun control activists say is too high. 
 
 Cornyn and other Republicans argue that Feinstein’s bill denies due process to people who may be on the terror list erroneously and are trying to exercise their constitutional right to gun ownership. 
 
 Separately, Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group backed by the former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, said it was working on a compromise with the Pennsylvania senator Patrick Toomey, a Republican in a tough re-election race this year who has sought compromise in the past on gun control measures. 
 
 By the end of the day, Toomey had introduced legislation that would direct the attorney general to create a new list of suspected terrorists who could be barred from buying weapons. But Democrats immediately rejected that idea, saying it would create too much of a backlog. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201606/778/1155968404_4944693672001_4944665893001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Democrats end filibuster, announce GOP to hold gun votes A deal on legislation to ban gun sales to suspected terrorists still looks unlikely. 
 
 Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and fellow Senate Democrats officially relinquished the floor early Thursday morning after spending nearly 15 hours straight talking about gun control, paving the way for high-profile congressional votes on restricting firearms just days after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. 
 
 Despite the flurry of activity, though, the two sides appeared no closer to an agreement on gun legislation that can pass the Senate. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Still, the chamber is likely to vote on two Democratic-backed gun measures: a proposal from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) meant to bar those on federal terror watch lists from obtaining firearms, and a plan from Murphy and Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) mandating background checks for sales at gun shows and over the internet. Republicans are expected to put forward two of their own proposals for votes. 
 
 “We’ve gotten to a place where we’re going to get votes on these important amendments,” Murphy, who had led the rhetorical charge on the Senate floor, said shortly before 1:30 a.m. Thursday. “What would’ve been unacceptable is to spend this entire week on legislative business that was irrelevant to the epidemic of gun violence that has been made more real than ever.” 
 
 The Connecticut senator, who had been a leading gun-control advocate in the Senate since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, took to the floor at 11:21 a.m. Wednesday to draw attention to the Democrats’ latest push to crack down on firearms laws. But it was a caucus-wide effort — 38 other Senate Democrats joined Murphy in the filibuster that lasted 14 hours and 50 minutes, with a handful of lawmakers, including Booker and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), standing with Murphy for hours on end. 
 
 Murphy formally yielded at 2:11 a.m. Thursday after delivering an emotional tribute to two Sandy Hook victims: 6-year-old Dylan Hockley and a teacher’s aide, Anne Marie Murphy, who was fatally shot while trying to shield Hockley from bullets. 
 
 “It doesn’t take courage to stand here on the floor of the United States Senate for two hours or six hours or 14 hours,” Murphy said. “It takes courage to look into the eye of a shooter and instead of running, wrapping your arms around a 6-year-old boy and accepting death." 
 
 The senator continued: “If Anne Marie Murphy could do that, then ask yourself: What can you do to make sure that Orlando or Sandy Hook never, ever happens again?” 
 
 As Murphy and other Senate Democrats talked all day Wednesday, however, bipartisan negotiations on gun legislation were breaking down behind closed doors. 
 
 In an election year, even something that seems politically unassailable — such as barring potential terrorists from getting weapons — is proving to be an incredibly difficult task. While senators in both parties say they want a solution, the Democrats’ attention-grabbing filibuster may be remembered more vividly than sputtering negotiations aimed at finding a compromise to close the so-called terrorist gun loophole. 
 
 “I’m not looking for cover; I’m looking to get something done here,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who was speaking with the pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety about a potential compromise. But Democrats have already rejected that proposal as worse than previous Republican offerings. 
 
 At first blush, the Senate on Wednesday seemed ready to take action to try to prevent future killings like last weekend’s massacre of 49 people in Orlando. Even as Democrats planned their lengthy filibuster, Republicans batted around anti-terrorism proposals and both parties were briefed by FBI Director James Comey. 
 
 But aides in both parties said there was little real movement by the end of the day, and both sides remained dug in behind their previous positions. Republicans and Democrats developed anti-terror guns proposals in December after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. — and one senior Democratic source said it would be a breakthrough simply to get re-dos on those two failed votes. 
 
 “My guess is we’re back to square one,” the source said. 
 
 The day began in earnest when Murphy launched a talking filibuster on the Senate floor — which was quickly joined by fellow Democrats — in an effort to pressure Republicans to accept legislation that would deny suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and require universal background checks. 
 
 The Senate is debating a spending bill for the Justice Department, to which Democrats had pushed to offer gun amendments. 
 
 “I’m going to remain on this floor until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together on these two measures, that we can get a path forward on addressing this epidemic in a meaningful, bipartisan way,” Murphy said as he launched his filibuster. 
 
 Most of the Democratic Caucus was unaware of Murphy’s plans until he took the floor, two senior aides said, though there had been some talk Tuesday about lining up speeches throughout the night Wednesday. 
 
 At the same time, Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Feinstein explored whether there was common ground on preventing suspected terrorists from buying firearms. Currently, the two parties are backing very different approaches to resolving instances in which someone feels they’ve been wrongly put on a watch list and therefore cannot purchase a gun. 
 
 Talks to reconcile those different approaches began on Tuesday, and Cornyn dismissed the Democratic filibuster as “filling the dead air” while the two parties negotiate. 
 
 “This is a lot more nuanced than some people appreciate,” Cornyn said in an interview. “We’re trying.” 
 
 Late Wednesday afternoon, however, Feinstein signaled that her talks with Cornyn were unlikely to bear fruit. 
 
 “I don’t think that’s gonna work out,” Feinstein told reporters. When asked why, she responded: “I was told he gave it to the NRA. Now, that would do it.” 
 
 Separately, Toomey was working with the Michael Bloomberg-backed group Everytown on a bipartisan deal to end the loophole. Democrats seemed unmoved, but Toomey vowed to push on: “I don’t think you can assume all Democrats have” rejected the proposal, he said in a brief interview, although Everytown said in a statement it couldn’t yet endorse his bill. 
 
 Murphy and the Senate Democrats’ talk-a-thon marked an unusual day in the Senate, which had taken up the spending bill for DOJ, the Commerce Department and related agencies. By refusing to give up the floor, Senate Democrats prevented any amendment votes on the Justice Department spending bill. 
 
 As senators entered a classified briefing, Murphy and a handful of his colleagues held the floor, refusing to let the Senate move forward on the spending bill without a gun debate. Booker bucked up the new class of Senate pages, who were preparing for their first late night in the Capitol. 
 
 Murphy paced in his dress shoes — not the sneakers that Sen. Rand Paul once laced up for a filibuster. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) railed against the use of “Rambo-style” assault weapons. At one point Wednesday night, Murphy looked up toward his young son Owen — seated in the chamber gallery — and apologized to him for missing pizza night, while telling him: “I hope that you’ll understand someday why we’re doing this.” 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, three floors down in the bowels of the Capitol, senators pressed Comey on the different terror watch lists used by the feds, trying to understand how suspected Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was able to obtain his gun despite previous federal investigations, according to one senator who attended. 
 
 “The FBI has so many counterterrorism investigations going on all over this country. So the biggest threat is, in fact, the lone wolf right now,” Feinstein said after the briefing. 
 
 The Senate talkathon, FBI briefing and backroom talks came the same day presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump tweeted that he would meet with the NRA. 
 
 The NRA formally backed an approach favored by Senate Republicans that would allow a judge to arbitrate people who mistakenly end up on the terrorism watch list and want to buy guns, while Democrats prefer giving the Justice Department such authority. Both bills were voted down by the Senate in December. 
 
 “If an investigation uncovers evidence of terrorist activity or involvement, the government should be allowed to immediately go to court, block the sale, and arrest the terrorist. At the same time, due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed,” said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. 
 
 The FBI has also signaled concerns about the general thrust of the Democratic proposal in the past. During testimony to Congress in 2015, Comey indicated that barring someone on the watch list from buying a gun could potentially compromise terror investigations. 
 
 “It’s a little bit challenging for us because ‘known or suspected’ means it hasn’t been adjudicated in every case that somebody is a terrorist,” Comey told Feinstein during the hearing last year. “It’s somebody we’re investigating, so we don’t want to, obviously, blow our investigation. Sorry.” 
 
 This time around, however, Feinstein anticipated that her proposal wouldn't be a problem because it contained protections that would prevent disclosing national security investigations, she said. Her legislation would not require the Justice Department to block the sale, but rather give it the powers to do so, an aide said. 
 
 The blessing of the NRA caused Republicans to dig in behind Cornyn’s proposal and made it harder for any compromise with Democrats to pass muster. 
 
 But Cornyn’s original proposal from last year also included language to defund “sanctuary cities” — a provision he has said he will remove. Including it last year made it impossible for most Democrats to support his proposal, which garnered 55 votes, five short of the 60-vote threshold. 
 
 “My hope is we will grow our vote,” Cornyn said. 
 
 Cornyn’s plan, however, drew some criticism from Toomey, who has played a key role on gun policy. The senator dismissed both gun measures put forward in the Senate, saying the Democratic plan lacked due process but that Cornyn’s proposal was insufficient, too. The Texas Republican’s plan allows the attorney general to delay a gun purchase for up to three days. 
 
 Toomey introduced his own bill, which would require the attorney general to submit terror lists to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, providing a way to overrule the attorney general. But Democrats familiar with the proposal said it would make it harder to block terrorists from buying guns. 
 
 Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) is also discussing a potential compromise with Democrats, according to an aide. 
 
 ||||| Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) ended a 14-hour filibuster to force Republicans to vote on two gun control measures on June 16. He told the emotional story of a Sandy Hook victim before he left the floor. (AP) 
 
 The Senate is expected to vote Monday on a series of competing gun-control measures that will highlight the continuing divide between Democrats and Republicans over how Congress should respond to mass shootings. 
 
 All are likely to fail as the two parties largely retreat to their respective corners on gun control after attempts to craft a compromise frayed almost as soon as they began. 
 
 Senators are expected to vote on four proposals, according to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). Two of them, backed by Democrats, would seek to prevent suspected terrorists from acquiring guns and explosives and impose mandatory background checks for firearms sold at gun shows and through online dealers. 
 
 Republicans are expected to offer two competing proposals, including one that would keep guns away from suspected terrorists if authorities can prove they have probable cause to do so within three business days of the attempted sale, said Cornyn, the author of that legislation. 
 
 Those measures have all failed to pass the Senate before, a point that frustrated many senators Thursday. 
 
 “Instead of trying to find a solution that would work and still protect people’s constitutional rights, we’re going to battle to a draw on Monday night,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said. The votes, he continued are “an intentional way to keep this as an issue; it’s not a way to solve this problem.” 
 
 Even if the Senate were to strike a deal, it’s unclear such a proposal would be able to get through the House. Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) was non-committal on the issue Thursday. 
 
 “We want to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.” he told reporters. “Everybody wants that. But as we look at how to proceed, we also want to make sure that we’re not infringing upon people’s legitimate constitutional rights. That’s important.” 
 
 How to prevent terrorists from getting guns has become a subject of intense debate in Congress in the wake of the deadly attack in Orlando on Sunday in which 49 people were killed. The shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, had been on the FBI’s terrorist watch list, but he was removed in 2014 because of a lack of evidence that he would commit an immediate crime. 
 
 1 of 25 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What the investigation into the Orlando mass shooting looks like View Photos Officials are scouring the site and others in the area for information about the June 12 massacre. Caption Officials are scouring the site and others in the area for information about the June 12 massacre. June 15, 2016 Law enforcement officials gather outside Pulse nightclub in Orlando during the shooting investigation. David Goldman/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Democrats have been angling for votes on a measure written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would deny firearms and explosives to anyone the attorney general suspects of being a terrorist. They also want a vote on a proposal drafted by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would expand background checks by requiring them for guns purchased at gun shows and online. 
 
 Murphy staged a near-15-hour filibuster on the Senate floor over the past two days to secure a vote on those measures and credited his blockade with pressuring Republican leaders to commit to holding the votes. 
 
 “We still have to get from here to there, but we did not have that commitment when we started,” Murphy said early Thursday, though he noted that there was “no guarantee that those amendments pass.” 
 
 [Why it makes perfect sense that Chris Murphy is leading a gun-control filibuster] 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) celebrated Murphy’s efforts, calling his display “inspiring” and saying all 46 Senate Democrats are united behind him. 
 
 “I hope he got the attention of the Senate Republicans,” Reid added. 
 
 But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) derided Murphy’s filibuster as “a campaign talkathon out here on the Senate floor which also prevented us from moving forward.” 
 
 The Fix's Amber Phillips breaks down why Congress is unlikely to pass major gun control legislation, despite Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) filibustering for 15 hours on June 15. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) 
 
 GOP leaders say they have maintained since Tuesday there would be votes on amendments, though they had not specified which Republican- or Democrat-backed proposals would be considered. 
 
 [How ‘pro-gun’ Bob Casey became a Senate evangelist for gun control] 
 
 “Of course no one wants terrorists to be able to buy a gun,” McConnell said. “If Democrats are actually serious about getting a solution on that issue, not just making a political talking point, they’ll join with us to support Senator Cornyn’s” bill. 
 
 But there are signs Republicans are growing uncomfortable with the Cornyn alternative. 
 
 Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is not up for reelection until 2020, on Wednesday criticized the measure — which she supported last year — saying it isn’t strong enough and “doesn’t do the job.” 
 
 Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) said he thought “the Cornyn approach doesn’t give the AG the opportunity that an AG needs to make a case against someone who is actually a terrorist.” 
 
 Neither was ready to support Feinstein’s legislation. But both have been working on potential alternatives to the Cornyn and Feinstein bills. 
 
 Collins said Thursday that she was working with “a group of Republican senators” on a measure that would give the attorney general full authority to deny the right to buy a gun to anyone on the No Fly or Selectee lists – subsets of the FBI’s consolidated terrorist watchlist of 800,000 names. 
 
 It would also include a five-year look back provision ensuring that the FBI would be alerted whenever someone who used to be on one of those lists, like the Orlando shooter, purchased a gun. 
 
 Someone like Mateen “wouldn’t be denied the ability to buy a gun because he’s no longer on the list, but the FBI would be pinged that he had purchased a gun,” Collins explained, concluding that sequence of events “would undoubtedly put him back on the list.” 
 
 Toomey was also in talks Wednesday with a gun-control advocacy organization backed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to craft a measure that Republicans could live with to prevent terrorists from obtaining firearms. 
 
 “This is not rocket science to figure this out,” Toomey said on the Senate floor Wednesday, adding that he had been speaking to “several” senators about a compromise. 
 
 But by the day’s end, leading Democrats were deriding the specifics of the Pennsylvania Republican’s proposal, and a spokeswoman for Bloomberg’s organization, Everytown for Gun Safety, said, “We’re not there yet.” 
 
 On Wednesday, Toomey proposed his own language, in which a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would annually vet a list from the attorney general of potential terrorists, who could be prevented from purchasing a firearm or explosive if the court agreed. 
 
 Meanwhile, other attempts at compromise fell short. 
 
 Feinstein approached Cornyn to try to reach a deal Wednesday, but those talks appeared to have frayed. 
 
 “I don’t think it’s going to work out,” Feinstein told reporters late Wednesday of her efforts to find a middle ground with Cornyn. 
 
 [Senators target terrorist watch lists] 
 
 Both the Cornyn and Feinstein measures failed to pass the Senate in December following the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif. Republicans argue Feinstein’s legislation doesn’t do enough to protect the Second Amendment rights of individuals who might be labeled suspected terrorists by mistake. 
 
 Democrats say the time frame in Cornyn’s bill is too narrow and would make it functionally impossible to prevent anyone, even a terrorist, from getting a gun. 
 
 “It’s a way for them to say they’re doing something when they are doing nothing,” Schumer said. 
 
 The Justice Department on Thursday formally announced its support for the Feinstein amendment. 
 
 At a news conference with Senate Democrats and families of victims of gun violence June 16, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said others in the Senate are "for the first time ... actually saying we ought to do something" to prevent shooting deaths. (Reuters) 
 
 Previous efforts to pass gun-control legislation in the wake of recent mass shootings have been unsuccessful. The closest the Senate came to making headway in recent years was in 2013, when the Senate voted on a measure written by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) to require criminal and mental background checks at gun shows and for online gun sales following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. 
 
 But only 54 senators, including four Republicans, supported that bill then — six votes shy of the 60 votes supporters needed. 
 
 Manchin called the substance of his and Toomey’s measure “the fundamental building block” of gun-control legislation on Wednesday. 
 
 “You can’t do a no-fly bill, you can’t do a terrorist watch list, and then leave a loophole,” Manchin told reporters. “That loophole must be closed.” 
 
 
 
 This frame grab provided by C-SPAN shows Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) speaking on the floor of the Senate after launching a filibuster over gun control. (Senate Television via AP) 
 
 Murphy said early Thursday that the votes on the Democratic-backed amendments to keep guns from suspected terrorists and expand background checks were just the beginning of a bigger agenda. 
 
 “We want to start with these two common-sense measures,” Murphy said early Thursday, adding that Democrats had “carefully selected” the proposals “as the most likely to get bipartisan votes” because “they are as noncontroversial as you get.” 
 
 Looming over the debate is where presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump stands. On Wednesday morning, he tweeted that he would be meeting with the NRA to express his views that those on the terrorist list should not be allowed to purchase weapons. 
 
 I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2016 
 
 Several Republican senators said on Thursday that they aren’t sure what Trump’s position is on the specific proposals being considered by the Senate and shrugged off whether they had to be on the same page as their party’s presumptive nominee. 
 
 “I can’t comment on where he’s going on that issue,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s top ally in the Senate. “He’s been a staunch supporter of the second amendment, and there is a huge divide between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. “ 
 
 Gun-control advocates are braced for another policy defeat in the Senate, but they are also claiming a victory of sorts. 
 
 “After Sandy Hook it took four months for the U.S. Senate to vote. After Orlando it took four days,” said Everytown spokeswoman Erika Soto Lamb. “Make no mistake that this is another sign of the sea change in gun politics.” 
 
 Mike DeBonis and Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.
– After almost 15 hours of filibustering, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy declared victory early Thursday morning, saying he had secured a Senate vote on gun control measures. The Connecticut senator, who cited the Sandy Hook massacre when he launched the filibuster Wednesday morning, called it a day at 2:11am, the Guardian reports. He told reporters that Republican leaders had agreed to vote on measures to expand background checks and ban gun sales to suspected terrorists, which will be introduced as amendments to a spending bill, reports the Washington Post. Murphy noted that while he had secured a vote, there's no guarantee that any Republicans will actually vote in favor of the measures. During the talkathon, Murphy said the Orlando mass shooting was a "devastating" event, and that the Senate "has done absolutely nothing" after other mass shootings. Sources from both parties tell Politico that during a difficult day of negotiations on Capitol Hill, very little progress was made in bringing the sides together, even on such a seemingly simple measure as denying guns to suspected terrorists. (Donald Trump reportedly favors a ban on such sales and plans to meet with the NRA on the issue.)