Murphy: ‘No one is safe’ until Congress acts on gun violence

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has emerged as a leading advocate for gun control, made an emotional appeal on Sunday for Congress to address gun violence in the wake of the deadly church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

“The terrifying fact is that no one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing in the face of this epidemic,” Murphy said in a lengthy statement, stressing that time to act “is now.”

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“As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets.”

“Ask yourself – how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents,” he said, addressing his congressional colleagues,” he wrote.

Can you sleep tonight, colleagues, when the price of gun lobby goodwill is this – blood soaked church and school floors, city streets?

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) November 5, 2017

Murphy pointed to a list of recent mass shootings that have left Americans feeling unsafe. He mentioned the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, which took place last month when a gunman opened fire at a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people.

He also mentioned the mass shooting that took place in his home state in 2012, when a gunman opened fire on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six staff members.

“My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach, once again, when I heard of today’s shooting in Texas. My heart dropped further when I thought about the growing macabre club of families in Las Vegas and Orlando and Charleston and Newtown, who have to relive their own day of horror every time another mass killing occurs,” he wrote, referring to the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting and the Charleston church massacre.

The Connecticut lawmaker blamed powerful gun lobbying efforts for leaving Americans feeling helpless in the face of “mass slaughter,” arguing that the nation’s unprecedented levels of “mass carnage” will not abate unless lawmakers take action.

“The paralysis you feel right now – the impotent helplessness that washes over you as news of another mass slaughter scrolls across the television screen – isn’t real. It’s a fiction created and methodically cultivated by the gun lobby, designed to assure that no laws are passed to make America safer, because those laws would cut into their profits,” he wrote.

Murphy’s statement comes shortly after reports revealed at least 25 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a Baptist church not far outside of San Antonio.

Other Democratic lawmakers have also renewed their calls to curb gun violence with reform.