Sandy Hook congressman begs on hands and knees ‘what are we doing?’

Chris Murphy has known as on the Senate to enact gun reform sooner fairly than later (Image: Reuters/CBS)

A congressman has made an impassioned plea to the Senate for gun reform within the wake of one other mass capturing in an American college.

Nineteen kids, aged between 7-10 and two academics have been killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fireplace at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas yesterday.

The tragedy comes 10 years after the Sandy Hook bloodbath which noticed 26 individuals killed when a 20-year-old man broke into a faculty armed with a rifle.

Now, Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, who got here to Congress representing Sandy Hook has begged his colleagues to lastly enact gun reform and deal with America’s downside with gun violence.

Mr Murphy was the Democratic Congressman for Connecticut’s fifth district – which included Sandy Hook.

He took to the Senate flooring yesterday to demand lawmakers do what they did not do after the bloodbath.

He mentioned: ‘Fourteen youngsters useless in an elementary college in Texas proper now.

‘What are we doing? What are we doing? Simply days after a shooter walked right into a grocery retailer to gun down African American patrons, we've got one other Sandy Hook on our fingers. What are we doing?

‘As the youngsters run for his or her lives, we doing nothing. What are we doing? Why are you right here if to not clear up an issue as existential as this?

‘This isn’t inevitable. These youngsters weren’t unfortunate. This solely occurs on this nation and nowhere else.’ 

Congress has been unable to move substantial gun violence laws for the reason that collapse of a bipartisan Senate effort within the aftermath of Sandy Hook.

However Mr Murphy urged his colleagues to discover a compromise.

‘I’m right here on this flooring to beg — to actually get down on my fingers and knees — to beg my colleagues. Discover a path ahead right here,’ he mentioned.

The bloodbath in Uvalde is America’s deadliest college capturing since Sandy Hook (Image: Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Pictures)

‘Work with us to discover a option to move legal guidelines that make this much less possible,’

‘I simply don’t perceive why individuals right here assume we’re powerless,’ Murphy later advised reporters. ‘We aren’t.’

He mentioned he was working with colleagues, notably reaching out to Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, to see if they might muster bipartisan assist for gun violence laws.

Although the Democrats and president Joe Biden have slim management of Congress, payments on gun violence have been halted within the face of Republican opposition within the Senate.

Final 12 months, the Home handed two payments to broaden background checks on firearms purchases.

At the very least 19 kids aged between 7 and 10 have been killed within the mass capturing in Texas (Image: Reuters)

One invoice would have closed a loophole for personal and on-line gross sales. The opposite would have prolonged the background verify evaluation interval.

Each languished within the 50-50 Senate the place Democrats want not less than 10 Republican votes to beat objections from a filibuster.

Yesterday’s tragedy in Texas seems hauntingly just like the Sandy Hook capturing in December 2012, when Adam Lanza murdered 20 kids and 6 academics with an AR-15-type rifle that had been legally bought by his mum.

Lanza killed himself as police arrived. Earlier than going to the college, he had fatally shot his mum at their Newtown house.

A report by Connecticut’s youngster advocate mentioned the Sandy Hook shooter’s extreme and deteriorating psychological well being issues, his preoccupation with violence and entry to his mum’s weapons ‘proved a recipe for mass homicide’.

The bloodbath at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde has tragic similarities to Sandy Hook (Image: AP)

In February, the households of 9 Sandy Hook victims reached a $73 million settlement in a lawsuit towards Remington, the maker of the rifle used within the capturing.

They mentioned the corporate ought to have by no means bought such a harmful weapon to the general public.

Mr Murphy acknowledged the issue of gun violence received’t be solved in a single day.

‘I perceive my Republican colleagues won't comply with every little thing that I'll assist, however there's a frequent denominator that we are able to discover,’ he mentioned.

‘However by doing one thing, we not less than cease sending this quiet message of endorsement to those killers whose brains are breaking, who see the best ranges of presidency doing nothing, capturing after capturing.’

.