Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, acknowledged that Senate Democrats lack the necessary 60 votes to advance an assault weapons ban bill but expressed hope on AWN’s “State of the Union” that progress might be made in the following Congress if Democrats maintain their majority in Georgia.
He told AWN’s Dana Bash on Sunday morning, “I’m delighted that President (Joe) Biden is going to be pressing us to take a vote on an assault weapons prohibition.” “It was already approved by the House. It is presently facing the Senate. Does it currently have 60 votes in the Senate? Most likely not. However, let’s strive to get that number as near to 60 as we can. If we don’t have enough senators, we’ll speak with [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and perhaps try again the following year with the addition of another senator to see if we can do better.
Murphy added that the US Senate has to have a discussion about funding law enforcement in localities that don’t enforce local, state, and federal gun regulations.
“They have determined that they will essentially refuse to put existing legislation into effect. That is becoming a bigger issue in our nation, he said. And I believe the United States Senate ought to have a discussion on that. Do we want to keep paying local law enforcement in jurisdictions that don’t enforce state and federal gun laws?
“I’ll chat to my colleagues about how we should tackle this situation,” he continued. However, the nation’s gun laws are not being enforced in 60% of the counties, therefore we must take action.
An assault-style weapon and a handgun were used in a recent shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, while authorities claimed the shooter in last week’s Walmart shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia, had a handgun and several magazines.
The lame duck session of Congress begins this week with a lengthy to-do list that is heavily weighted toward passing the crucial government funding bill in addition to other matters of importance. However, there are not enough votes to pass any gun control legislation, particularly the assault weapons ban that Vice President Biden has repeatedly called for. Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that anything will be passed over the following two years given the likelihood of a divided Congress in the upcoming session.
