'We Did it Because of You': Democrat Expresses 'Gratefulness' as Senate Passes Gun Control Bill
The US Senate passed what Democrats described as the “most meaningful gun safety legislation in decades,” the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, on Thursday, June 23.
The Senate voted 65 to 33 to pass the bipartisan gun control bill, according to local news reports.
The bill is intended to strengthen background checks, provide federal assistance for state crisis intervention programs, enhance penalties for gun trafficking and straw purchases, and invest in school safety and mental health, according to representatives.
Senator Chris Murphy addressed his Twitter followers that night, expressing his “greatfulness.” In the video, Murphy said: “We did something exceptional tonight in the United States Senate, we broke a 30-year logjam. We passed the most significant piece of gun safety legislation that congress has seen in 30 years, and we did it because of you.”
The bill was due to be presented to the House of Representatives on Friday, and if passed, would be sent to President Biden to sign into law. Credit: Chris Murphy via Storyful
Video Transcript
CHRIS MURPHY: It's nearing 1:00 AM. I'm home after another long night in the United States Senate. I am exhausted from the last four weeks, but I'm full of gratefulness. We did something exceptional tonight in the United States Senate. We broke a 30-year logjam. We passed the most significant piece of gun safety legislation that Congress has seen in 30 years, and we did it because of you. We did it because of this movement, because of people all across this country who, over the last 10 years, came up against failure after failure, roadblock against roadblock, after roadblock, and , persevered kept going because you were convinced of the righteousness of this cause. And that we would eventually prevail, that one day we'd be strong enough to beat the NRA, that we'd be strong enough to beat the gun lobby. Well, we did it tonight in the United States Senate. We did it with Republican votes.
I'm so grateful to John Cornyn, and Thom Tillis, Kyrsten Sinema, all of the members who were part of our discussions. But I'm really grateful to all of you for creating a moral imperative that Congress, this time, couldn't ignore. We're not done. Tomorrow, the House will take this package up, and we need them to pass it, and we need them to pass it with a similar bipartisan margin that we did in the Senate. We need to get it to the president's desk and signed into law.
And when that happens, we're going to save lives, thousands of lives. This package isn't everything. This bill isn't everything that I want. But we should be proud of it. We should be proud of it. And so, I'm going to go to bed. [CHUCKLING] I might take a day or two off. I couldn't be more proud to be a part of this movement that we've built over the last decade. And I couldn't be more proud of our achievement tonight.
