Gun violence draws outcry
Connecticut senators continue their fight for federal protections
In the wake of a violent weekend of coast-to-coast mass shootings, Connecticut legislators said they are grappling with a phenomenon that has become all too familiar: the normalization of gun violence.
Lawmakers say they are left calling, desperately, for the same commonsense gun laws they’ve been championing for years as fatalities increase across the United States, hitting home in Hartford, where the number of deadly shootings has spiked already this year.
“It’s a moral indictment of our nation that we have failed to act with federal protections against gun violence,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Monday, two days after a gunman shot 13 people in a supermarket in Buffalo, killing 10, and one day after one person died and five were wounded in a shooting in a church in Laguna Woods, California.
With the 10-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre fast approaching, legislatures say they are still fighting for some of the same things they began advocating for years ago, like universal background checks and stricter laws surrounding the types of weapons people are allowed to buy.
Sen. Blumenthal said that he is “sadder and angrier than ever” that, approaching an entire decade since Sandy Hook, the nation is still grappling with now “normalized” mass shootings and increasing rates of everyday gun violence.
Blumenthal said the upward trend in gun violence is a scary one that can’t be plotted or predicted. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which independently collects nationwide shooting data, there have been nearly 200 mass shootings in 2022, only 4 ½ months into the year.
In Hartford, 15 people have been killed by gunfire since the start of 2022, according to the Hartford Police Department.
Though states like Connecticut have tightened their gun laws, Blumenthal and Sen. Chris Murphy say federal legislation needed to protect the nation from frequent shootings is still lacking.
“It is a stark and stunning sign of dysfunction and moral decrepitude that Congress has been so complicit,” said Blumenthal.
Appearing on MSNBC after the Buffalo shooting to talk about gun violence, Sen. Murphy said that he thinks the nation is facing “two really frightening phenomena that are happening in this country right now” — the normalization of racism and the normalization of mass shootings.
Murphy said that “the upward spiral in gun violence the last few years is absolutely heartbreaking.”
Two people losing their lives to gun violence in Hartford this past weekend should be enough of a catalyst for change, he said, but even paired with mass shootings on both coasts, he’s afraid it won’t be.
Murphy and Blumenthal have both worked to advocate for stricter laws around assault-style weapons. What happened inside the Tops supermarket in Buffalo on Saturday, said Murphy, involved a kind of firearm that he thinks the average person shouldn’t have access to.
“The Buffalo shooter had a gun that, in any other high-income nation, he wouldn’t be allowed to purchase,” he said. The senator added that he felt the same about the weapon used in Newtown.
“I’m confident that some of those 20 kids would still be alive today if Adam Lanza didn’t have that kind of gun,” he said.
Blumenthal said he is working on legislation to restrict the production of ghost guns, which are often 3D printed or pieced together at home from parts ordered online and are therefore nearly impossible to trace. He is also meeting with colleagues and experts this week to tackle what he called an explosion in domestic violence rates since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Murphy said background checks are, in his opinion, “the holy grail” of legislation that will reduce gun violence.
Both senators said they’re proud of the progress Connecticut has made at the state level to protect its people from gun violence.
“States have stepped forward, Connecticut among them, with tremendous bravery and boldness, and I’m very proud to be from a state that has demonstrated such courage and vision,” said Blumenthal. “Even if we are also home to a tragedy that has become a synonym for mass murder by guns.”
Murphy said that looking back 10 years, Connecticut has been joined by a long litany of states with mass shootings. In his experience, there will be no epiphany, no single moment or tragedy that creates change. What’s needed, Murphy said, is a gradual growth of political power that will push forward a reform on gun laws. As that grows, they will continue to advocate for legislation to help reduce gun violence.
Blumenthal hopes to help lawmakers in Washington recognize that, emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, “parts of our nation, maybe our whole nation, is in the midst of a mental health crisis that is literally tearing apart the psyches and stabilities of our people.” He will continue to advocate for mental health care, stricter hate crime laws and a swift, effective attempt to slow the steady rise of domestic violence, racial violence and deadly shootings.
Murphy is hopeful that the violent weekend will force people to ask themselves why this has become the norm.
“I do hope that folks look at what happened in Buffalo and ask themselves whether we still need to allow these weapons,” he said. “Nobody needs a 30-round magazine to hunt or protect their home.”