Culture

Democrat Senators Have Been Filibustering All Day For Action On Gun Control

"Why do you want to be a United States Senator if you can ignore the slaughter of so many people?"

by Meg Watson  16 June 2016

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The shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando over the weekend has brought up the usual murmurs from the US about gun control. While most politicians or political commentators have focussed on simply expressing their grief and sending their prayers to the victims’ families, there are a notable few desperately trying to make it clear that this, the deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s history, has to be time for real change.

Now, to make sure this message gets truly heard by those with the power to do something about it, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut has staged a filibuster demanding a vote on gun control. It’s currently around 6pm in Washington, he’s been speaking since 11.20am, and he’s still going.

Murphy is a first-term senator who came into office right before the Sandy Hook primary school shooting in 2012. Since then, he’s been extremely vocal about the need for gun control. When Congress failed to pass even the smallest restrictions after Sandy Hook, Murphy labelled the Republican Party “neo-anarchist[s]”. “80 percent to 90 percent of Americans will tell you they wanted expanded background checks for people trying to buy guns… Democracy is not supposed to allow for that to happen,” he said on the matter.

Now standing on the floor of the Senate, this is an issue Murphy’s raised again. After speaking with passion about both Sandy Hook and Orlando, he turned to the Republicans in the room and asked, “Why do you want to be a United States Senator if you can ignore the slaughter of so many people?”

Though Murphy is leading the charge, he’s supported by a number of other Democrats who are also advocating for change. Their goal is to push a vote on legislation to expand universal background checks (the same measure which was knocked back after Sandy Hook), and ban people on the no-fly list or terrorism watch lists from buying guns. Though the shooter in Orlando, Omar Mateen, had previously been on an FBI watch list, there’s doubt that even this legislation would have stopped him from legally purchasing guns.

All this is a very tough ask from the Republican-led Congress, but Murphy’s stated he won’t yield the floor until there’s at least a vote. He’s currently being signed up for speaking slots as late as 10.30pm (12.30pm our time).

You can watch live here:

If you don’t have all day for that, here are a few smaller bits from the last six hours:

It’s a great day to be a politics nerd.