@ChrisMurphyCT/Twitter
December 1, 2021, 9:21 am
With all of the constant Republican posturing on the issue of abortion, their party’s general failure to address concerns about the quality of life for people who have already been born is a constant topic of conversation. And it’s one that Republicans in positions of power generally seem to ignore, knowing full well what mobilizes their base and what organizations financially support their campaigns.
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That dichotomy was on full display Tuesday, when Republicans were giving speeches on the Senate floor about the “sanctity of life” while yet another school shooting claimed the lives of three students in Michigan and left eight others wounded.
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Connecticut senator Chris Murphy was frustrated enough by the disconnect that he says he turned his car around on the way home from work and returned to the Senate floor to give a speech of his own, targeting the “Republicans’ fealty to the gun lobby.”
“Do not lecture us about the sanctity, the importance of life when 100 people every single day are losing their lives to guns, when kids, every day, go to school fearful that they won’t return home because a classmate will turn a gun on them, when it is in our control whether this happens,” he said. “You care about life? Then get these dangerous, military-style weapons off the streets, out of our schools. You care about life? Then make sure criminals don’t get guns by making sure everybody goes through a background check in this country.”
“This only happens in the United States of America. There is no other nation in the high income world in which kids worry about being shot when they go to school. It happens here, in America, because we choose to let it happen. We’re not unlucky. This is purposeful. This is a choice made by the United States senate, to sit on our hands and do nothing while kids die.”
Murphy went on to point out that common-sense gun reform is supported by the majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation. It’s one of the few things constituents agree upon across the ever-deepening political divide, and yet Republicans with actual power to change things keep refusing to do so for their own selfish benefit.
“The gun lobby and the gun industry is more important to half of the members of the senate than is the safety of our kids,” he said. “And that is infuriating.”
As Murphy said, the majority of Americans are fed up with gun violence in this country. And while there are many differing opinions as to how, precisely, to address it, the general consensus among everyone besides Republican politicians is that it does need to be addressed. Something has to change.
As such, his speech was met equal amounts of support and frustration, because we’ve been here again and again and again and nobody knows anymore what it will take for that change to come.
Its about money. Always about money. No one is lobbying for gun control. It’s not profitable.
— Bechk45
(@bechk45) December 1, 2021
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We’re number 1!!!!
Oh. Wait…— Blue Fish (@fishwife0701) December 1, 2021
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Murphy’s speech can be viewed in its entirety on his YouTube channel.
*First Published: December 1, 2021, 9:21 am
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