U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy was not optimistic.
After 10 years of fighting unsuccessfully for gun safety laws, he was skeptical that anything would change after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old with an AR-15 rifle.
Murphy delivered an impassioned speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate that gained nationwide attention, and he then headed into closed-door talks to seek a possible compromise on gun control.
But something was clearly different this time.
“The first meeting we had, two days after Uvalde, felt different than any meeting I had ever been in on this topic,” Murphy told reporters in Hartford. “There was just a seriousness about getting something done that I had never heard before. It wasn’t a meeting where we were feeling each other out. We actually committed to ideas in that meeting — the first meeting — and almost every single one of the ideas we talked about in that first meeting ended up in the bill.”
Murphy and others celebrated Friday as the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives both passed the most important bipartisan gun control bill in the past three decades.
The bill largely closes the “boyfriend loophole” to block those convicted of domestic violence in the future from legally buying a gun, makes more sellers register as federally licensed firearms dealers so that they must conduct criminal background checks on potential buyers, and allows more time to check the mental health and juvenile records for those under 21 seeking to buy a gun. The bill also cracks down on illegal gunrunners, earmarks money for community violence prevention and provides $15 billion for addressing mental health issues, often cited as a reason for mass shootings.
After his speeches on the Senate floor, Murphy has become a leader in the gun safety movement and has appeared frequently on national television on CNN and MSNBC. Along with Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Murphy is credited with helping mold the bipartisan coalition that voted 65-33 with 15 Republicans breaking with their party to vote for the bill with the Democrats.
“I was openly pessimistic at the beginning of these negotiations,” Murphy said. “I told [Senate Democratic leader Chuck] Schumer, give us space for negotiations, but we’ve got less than a 50-50 chance of success.”
When the process started, insiders never predicted that 15 Republicans would support the final package.
“For the first time in 30 years, Republicans and Democrats decided to do something together,” Murphy said. “The Republicans finally figured out there was political advantage to voting on gun safety — something they refused to admit for three decades.”
Murphy said that he and his gun safety partner, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, had been working for 30 consecutive days to craft the final compromise.
“We said that one day our movement would have more volunteers, our movement would have more resources,” he said.
“We had confidence that, even though we lived through setback after setback, failure after failure, that one day we would break through,” Murphy told supporters Friday at at Riverfront Park in Hartford. “And last night, we beat the NRA.”
The influential National Rifle Association had opposed the controversial bill as the measure was being crafted in Washington, D.C.
“The NRA will support legislation that improves school security, promotes mental health services, and helps reduce violent crime,” the organization said. “However, we will oppose this gun control legislation because it falls short at every level. It does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners.
“This legislation can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, and use federal dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state and local politicians. This bill leaves too much discretion in the hands of government officials and also contains undefined and overbroad provisions — inviting interference with our constitutional freedoms.”
Despite heavy opposition by the NRA and its supporters, Blumenthal said that the gun safety movement is gaining strength.
Closing the boyfriend loophole, he said, reduces homicides in domestic violence cases by more than 10%.
“These laws work. They save lives,” Blumenthal said.
While the new law, which was signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday, will bring change, Blumenthal said he will continue pushing for bans on assault weapons and ghost guns, as well as universal background checks.
“We are not yet done,” Blumenthal said, “not by a long shot.”
The passage of the gun law in Congress came on the day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a New York case that was more than 100 years old that will now make it easier to obtain a gun.
State Attorney General William Tong blasted the court ruling and said the gun control movement must move forward.
“We cannot go back,” Tong said. “After Sandy Hook, Uvalde, Buffalo, and far too many more mass shootings and senseless gun deaths, we cannot cave to the gun lobby.”
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.
