United States: Chris Murphy, the man at the heart of the agreement to restrict access to weapons
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on Capitol Hill in Washington.
June 7, 2022. AFP - NICHOLAS KAMM
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
This Sunday, June 12, a group of Democratic and Republican senators announced that they had reached an agreement to restrict access to firearms: restrictions on access to weapons for people deemed dangerous, strengthening school security.
A
minimum
agreement , but which has a chance of being adopted in the Senate – on this subject, it is extremely rare.
Democrat Chris Murphy led the task force.
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The
Uvalde massacre left
21 dead, including 19 children in a primary school three weeks ago.
“
What do we do now?
This is the question asked by Chris Murphy, after the massacre of Uvalde, during his speech full of anger in the Senate.
This question, the senator has been asking for ten years, since
the massacre at the Sandy Hook school
in Newton, when 20 children and six adults were killed.
Chris Murphy was then 39 years old, he had just been elected senator of this state, Connecticut.
He remembers spending the day in a fire station, "
helpless
", watching hundreds of desperate parents searching for their children - until only the forty parents of the children who had been killed were left.
For the next two years, Chris Murphy took the floor weekly in the Senate, speaking to his colleagues about gun victims.
In ten years, his stubbornness has made him a hero among activists, but the legislation has been changed very little.
Three weeks ago, after the Uvalde massacre, the senator immediately contacted fellow Republicans to see if it was possible to move forward.
The compromise announced on Sunday June 12 is
a minimum
, but, explains the
Washington Post
, if, ten years ago, Chris Murphy sought to pass radical reforms, today he is ready to settle for progressive changes.
►
See also United States: a minimum agreement between senators for increased control over firearms
"This agreement, if passed by Congress, would be the most significant piece of gun-safety legislation in more than 25 years, and for that, it should be applauded."
https://t.co/7dqapLcajJ
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 13, 2022
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