Biden, Senate urge action after Colo. shooting
WASHINGTON — Urging action by the gridlocked Senate on gun law reforms, President Joe Biden on Tuesday demanded the chamber immediately pass two bills on the day after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo.
Connecticut Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal spoke ardently on the reforms, as they have after every mass shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
And Waterbury Chief of Police Fernando Spagnolo testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday — a firearms reform hearing that, as it happened, was long scheduled — that Connecticut’s gun laws, some of the toughest in the nation, were undermined by weaker federal standards.
The speeches and debates unfolded in the raw moment of anger and resolve that always follows a mass shooting.
“We’ve been through too many of these,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. “I don’t need to wait another minute let alone an hour to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act.”
The bills on the table would tighten federal background check laws and ban what Biden called “assault weapons” — military-style, semiautomatic firearms paired with high-capacity magazines.
Widespread support
The Boulder shooting was the second time in less than a week that the White House ordered flags to fly at half staff following a mass shooting. In Atlanta, another man shot and killed eight people, including six Asian-American women, at spas last week.
Across the country, gun sales and gun deaths increased during the pandemic. Last week, Bridgeport saw its third gun homicide of the year and second in less than seven days.
Murphy will meet with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., this week to decide a path forward on gun legislation in the Senate. Biden and Murphy both support two bills passed by the Democratic-led House of Representatives earlier this month that would require background checks for online firearm sales, at gun shows and in some private transactions.
“I don't see a lot of need to make changes to a bill that has 90 or 95 percent public support,” Murphy said. “It makes some sense to sort of test whether Republicans really want to still be on the outside side of this issue. So I'm always willing to listen to Republicans. I've been in dialogue with them, but I don't want to be negotiating against myself when there's a proposal that is wildly popular, a political movement behind it that is growing stronger.”
Connecticut example
Democrats — often led by the Connecticut delegation — have pushed to change federal gun laws since Sandy Hook but have failed for years to reach compromise with Republicans. Asked whether he now had the political capital to get something done, Biden said “I hope so,” and crossed his fingers.
Both Murphy and Blumenthal are at the center of the gun debate, leading bipartisan Senate negotiations over background checks, so-called red flag laws to take guns from people who threaten their communities, safe storage of firearms and other reforms.
Blumenthal, who helped lead the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun laws Tuesday, said the U.S. Congress was “complicit” in the Boulder, Colorado shooting due to their inaction.
“Gun violence is an epidemic in its own right,” said Blumenthal. “We need to end this epidemic with a comprehensive nationwide approach: expanded background checks, extreme risk laws to prevent suicides, mass shooting and hate crimes, protecting domestic victims and safe storage standards. These kind of measures are in our reach.”
Spagnolo, the Waterbury polce chief, testified about Connecticut’s successful efforts to quell gun violence since Sandy Hook, including a 2013 law that was the nation’s most stringent.
“In 2019, Waterbury experienced some of its lowest levels of gun violence in years,” he told the committee. “Statewide, since 2014 we saw a 41 percent reduction in gun homicides and a 15 percent reduction in gun suicides.”
End the filibuster?
But the hearing exposed a fraught rift between the two parties on federal gun laws. While Democrats championed the measures, Republicans — equally vocal about the need to pass legislation — backed stronger police forces and prosecution of people who illegally purchase guns. They said the progressive movement to “defund the police” made communities less safe.