Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., took credit Thursday for forcing Republicans to act on gun control after his nearly 15-hour long filibuster in the Senate.
“The American public agrees with us, that if you’re on the terrorist watch list and you’re not allowed to fly on a plane then you certainly shouldn’t be able to buy a dangerous assault weapon,” he said on CBS.
Murphy, who said he slept only two hours, said he and Senate Democrats are hopeful to get a vote on an expansion of background checks as soon as next week.
“My instincts certainly tell me they’re moving. If you listened over the course of the day yesterday, there were a number of Republicans madly scrambling to find some common ground,” Murphy said.
There are currently two proposals in play, and the Senate was trying to find a compromise between two competing gun bills from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
“One of the reasons Senator Feinstein wasn’t able to join us on the floor yesterday is that she was trying to work out those compromises,” Murphy said. “I do think that our filibuster made a difference. Let’s be honest, the Senate had no plans to talk about ending gun violence this week on the floor of the Senate. At the end of our filibuster, I think we made incredible progress to get the items back on the agenda in the Senate this week.”
Murphy took the floor around 11:20 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, saying he “had enough” of gun violence. He was joined by a handful of other Senators, including Republicans, in the filibuster. It concluded just after 2 a.m. Thursday.
The filibuster came in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in Orlando that left 50 people dead, including the shooter, and 53 others injured. The shooter had been investigated by the FBI twice, but still able to buy the guns used in the attack.
