HARTFORD—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday held a press conference in Hartford to lay out what’s in the bipartisan gun safety framework and how this historic legislation will break a three decades long logjam on anti-gun violence legislation.
Murphy laid out the five ways the framework will change gun laws: “The first, thanks to Senator Blumenthal - and I'll allow him to talk more about this - is major federal funding to build out red flag laws all across this country that will allow courts and police departments to temporarily take firearms away from people who present a danger to themselves or to others.”
Murphy continued: “Second, we close the boyfriend loophole. This is an egregious loophole in our law that allows for men who are convicted of assault against their girlfriends to continue to buy weapons. Even though if you committed the same crime against your spouse, you would be prohibited from buying weapons.”
“Third, a new rigorous standard of background checks for under 21 purchasers. Now of course, I want to ban assault weapons. Of course I would rather just raise the age to 21. But we have found common agreement to put a pause on sales to under 21 buyers and to use that pause both as a cooling down period if that person is in crisis, but also to do a more rigorous background check, including a call to the local police department to make sure that there are no flags before selling a weapon to a younger buyer,” Murphy added.
“Fourth, a new federal criminal prohibition on gun trafficking and straw purchasing. I've talked to many legal experts who say this might be the most important piece of our compromise bill because finally, we're going to have federal tools to go after the traffickers who buy all their weapons in South Carolina or Georgia and bring them up to Hartford and sell them on the streets of the city,” Murphy said.
Murphy continued: “And fifth, an update to our background checks statutes. Of course, I support universal background checks, but what we have agreed on is an update to the definition of federal firearms dealer to make sure that everyone who is engaged in the repeated for profit sale of firearms has to perform background checks.”
On the framework’s proposed investment in mental health, Murphy said: “We don't think you can solve America's gun violence epidemic through the prism of mental health. But if we have agreement between Democrats and Republicans to spend billions of additional dollars on mental health treatment, especially for vulnerable communities, let's take that opportunity.”
“This bill doesn't do everything. This bill will not end the epidemic of gun violence overnight. This bill doesn't include everything that Dick and I support. But it is substantial. It is significant. It will save lives, and it will provide us the momentum to be able to make further changes. That's why I describe this as a breakthrough moment,” Murphy concluded.
A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
“Thank you all for being here. My name is Chris Murphy; I have the honor of representing Connecticut in the United States Senate, and I'm joined here by my friend and partner, Senator Dick Blumenthal, as well as advocates who have been fighting for a decade — many for much longer than a decade — to do something about this epidemic of gun violence in America.
“Senator Blumenthal and I have spent the last three weeks engaged in intensive conversations in the Senate with our Republican colleagues about rising to this moment and finally breaking the thirty year logjam on the issue of gun violence. We are very proud to have an agreement between 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats in the Senate to pass the most significant piece of anti-gun violence legislation in nearly 30 years.
“This is indeed a breakthrough moment for the anti-gun violence movement, for survivors, for parents, and for advocates. I have never felt what I felt over the past three weeks in Connecticut. There is a level of fear and anxiety from parents and kids, all across this state and all across this country, that I've never felt before. And that fear, of course, is first and foremost about our kids’ safety.
“I have a fourth grader, and I can't stand the fact that he had to go back to school today after Uvalde and have the conversations with his friends that he had to have about how they would survive a mass shooting.
“But that fear amongst Americans is also due to their belief [that] Congress was going to do nothing again. Americans were fearful that Congress was so addicted to its own politics that it once again wouldn't be able to rise to the occasion that democracy was so broken. That even on the issues that matter most to Americans — like the physical safety of our kids — Congress would be stuck.
“Well, we are in the process of becoming unstuck on an issue that has weighed Congress down for 30 straight years. And, so, Senator Blumenthal and I are here to tell you about this agreement and to tell you why we are confident this agreement is not only going to save lives in the short run, but it's going to lead to more success for the anti-gun violence movement in the long run.
“Because what I know when I study great social change movements — and ours is one of those great social change movements — is that success begets success. That when you finally move that mountain, and you pass legislation that makes a difference, that in fact, you attract more people to your movement. You use that coalition for good in the future, and that's what will happen here.
“But first, let me talk about what we've come to an agreement on. There are five significant changes in America's gun laws included in this piece of legislation. The first, thanks to Senator Blumenthal — and I'll allow him to talk more about this — is major federal funding to build out red flag laws all across this country that will allow courts and police departments to temporarily take firearms away from people who present a danger to themselves or to others. These laws work. Connecticut just adopted ours; we're just getting it up and running. But in Florida, they've used it 5,000 times to save lives. That provision alone is going to be transformative.
“Second, we close the boyfriend loophole. This is an egregious loophole in our law that allows for men who are convicted of assault against their girlfriend to continue to buy weapons. Even though if you committed the same crime against your spouse, you would be prohibited from buying weapons. That loopholes is ended in our agreement.
“Third, a new rigorous standard of background checks for under-21 purchasers. Now of course, I want to ban assault weapons. Of course I would rather just raise the age to 21. But we have found common agreement to put a pause on sales to under-21 buyers and to use that pause both as a cooling down period if that person is in crisis, but also to do a more rigorous background check, including a call to the local police department to make sure that there are no flags before selling a weapon to a younger buyer.
“Fourth, a new federal criminal prohibition on gun trafficking and straw purchasing. I've talked to many legal experts who say this might be the most important piece of our compromise bill because finally, we're going to have federal tools to go after the traffickers who buy all their weapons in South Carolina or Georgia and bring them up to Hartford and sell them on the streets of the city. We finally have a tool to go after the gun traffickers who are flooding our cities with weapons.
“And fifth, an update to our background checks statutes. Of course, I support universal background checks, but what we have agreed on is an update to the definition of federal firearms dealer to make sure that everyone who is engaged in the repeated for profit sale of firearms has to perform background checks. We have a lot of folks who sell dozens of weapons a year, but because they claim it's a hobby or because they claim it's their second gig, they don't perform background checks. We're going to update that definition to make it clear that everybody engaged in the repeated for-profit sale of firearms has to conduct background checks.
“And then finally separate and aside from the changes in gun laws, a massive investment in mental health. And you know how Dick and I think about this. We don't think you can solve America's gun violence epidemic through the prism of mental health. But if we have agreement between Democrats and Republicans to spend billions of additional dollars on mental health treatment, especially for vulnerable communities, let's take that opportunity. And so we're going to pass a historic investment in children's mental health, in community mental health, in telemental health as part of this bill.
“We're glad that we have 10 Republicans supporting it. That signals that we have enough support to beat a filibuster in the Senate, but we still have a lot of work to do. We’ve got to draft this agreement into text. We've got to make sure that we have a coalition in the Senate that can get to 60 votes. We've got to make sure we have a path to passage in the House of Representatives.
“But I'm grateful to all of my partners, and I'll end here before turning it over to Dick. And first let me just call them out by name. I want to thank Senator John Cornyn. I want to thank Senator Thom Tillis. I want to thank Senator Kyrsten Sinema. They all spent 24/7 over the last three weeks trying to come to an agreement. And then I want to thank Senator Blumenthal for being my partner in all of this and being in all of these rooms.
“This has been an emotional weekend for me and for a lot of people. Thirty years. Thirty years since Congress has done anything meaningful on the issue of gun violence. This bill doesn't do everything. This bill will not end the epidemic of gun violence overnight. This bill doesn't include everything that Dick and I support. But it is substantial. It is significant. It will save lives, and it will provide us the momentum to be able to make further changes. That's why I describe this as a breakthrough moment.
“A lot of work to go between here and passage — between the moment that the President signs this into law — but I'm just grateful to this movement that stands behind me. I'm grateful to my colleagues for allowing us to get here. So with that, let me turn it over to Senator Blumenthal.”
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