WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd to discuss the path forward on passing comprehensive background checks legislation.

On the effort to get 60 Republican votes on a bill that expands background checks, Murphy said: “I'm not interested in getting 50 votes in the Senate. I'm interested in getting 60 votes—that's what is required to pass a piece of legislation today...I've been instructed by Senator Schumer to work over the next several weeks with Democrats and willing Republicans to try to get a bill that expands background checks that can pass, that can get votes from both sides. Don't count us out.”

Murphy continued: “I think the politics have shifted dramatically since 2013, even since 2016—the last time that we had a vote on background checks. But remember, 2019 after El Paso and Dayton, we came very close to passing a background checks expansion proposal that President Trump actually drafted and put before the Congress. It was the Ukraine scandal that got in the way. But I've gotten a lot of calls from Republicans in the Senate who don't want to fight this fight any longer because the NRA’s authority is fading, the anti-gun violence movement’s impact is increasing, and I think we have a chance.”

On getting a bill that Republicans could support, Murphy said: “[L]et’s be honest… you're going to have to make some reasonable accommodations if you want ten Republican votes, and I am already talking to Republicans who are not unwilling to sit down at the table. And the reason for that, Chuck, is that it's harder to win seats today if you are an A-rated NRA member of Congress. They lost a lot of those seats in 2018. And there's a reason Mitch McConnell didn't put anything like this up for a vote since 2016. He just doesn’t want to have to force his members, didn't want to have to force his members, to choose between the gun lobby and 90% of their constituents.”

On the shifting politics around guns, Murphy said: “[Mitch McConnell] said that like Joe Manchin, he opposes the version that passed the House, not that he opposes expanded background checks. And as you know, Mitch McConnell is always very careful about what he says. Eight years ago, he would have said he absolutely opposed expanding background checks. Today, he's much more careful about his words because he knows there may be ten members or more of his caucus who want to support a modified version of the house bill that still is a massive expansion of the number of sales, or still is a big expansion of the number of sales included in the background check system.”

In the wake of the mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Murphy said: “I think right now our best chance to get something passed is universal background checks. And I think that the theory of the case is that once we convince Republicans that the sky doesn't fall for you politically when you support a reasonable expansion of something like background checks, you can move on to other interventions.”

Murphy continued: “[I]n Connecticut, it's not just universal background checks that protects our citizens. We require you to get a permit before you buy a pistol, something that had it been in effect in these states might have prevented one of the shooters from getting a gun. We include [some misdemeanor] assaults not just felony assaults on the prohibited list of purchasers for firearms that likely would have stopped the shooter in Colorado from being able to get a weapon. So it's not just background checks, there's a whole host of other interventions that lead to states like Connecticut having much lower rates of gun crime that other states.”

On the filibuster, Murphy said: “I think that Republicans have to argue as a means of defending the current rules that the Senate can still work under the 60 vote requirement. I think Republicans may be looking for issues to prove that Democrats don't need to obliterate the filibuster. Here's their opportunity—an issue which has 90% support, which doesn't require them to shift their position or their current position to a Herculean level. They can pass—they can help us pass an expansion of background checks and prove to Democrats and the country that the Senate can work at a 60 vote threshold.”

Click here to watch the full interview.

###