Senate Democrats pay tribute to victims of mass shootings

Senate Democrats paid tribute to mass shooting victims on Wednesday by reading their names into the record on the Senate floor two days after a man opened fire at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket, killing 10.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) encouraged lawmakers to read the names of all victims of mass shootings so far this year in part to highlight to Republicans how many have died from gun violence.

“I am hopeful that I will be joined by a number of my colleagues to do something simple. Just to read into the record, permanent congressional record, the names of those that have died just in 2021,” Murphy said on the Senate floor. “I don’t think America has ever seen this rate of gun violence with the exception of wartime.”

Murphy (D-CT) on Senate floor w/other Senators “read into record names of individuals who have been lost to gun violence in 2021 as a way to make sure we recognize who they are & the lives they led,but also as a last-gasp effort to try to convince our colleagues to do something.” pic.twitter.com/xjkQdP3dFD

— Craig Caplan (@CraigCaplan) March 24, 2021

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined Murphy.

Thanks @amyklobuchar for joining us on the floor to read into the record the names of those lost in 2021 from gun violence. https://t.co/7feGciLeiz

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 25, 2021

The Boulder shooting killed 10 people, including a police officer, at a King Soopers supermarket. Another mass shooting in Georgia took the lives of eight people.

Murphy said reading the names would enter them into the congressional record.  

The shootings have renewed calls to ban assault weapons and offer other types of gun legislation, but efforts are likely to stall.