Senate Democrats took the chamber floor for a marathon, nearly 15-hour filibuster for stricter gun control legislation Wednesday, just days after a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring dozens of others. Led by Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, the filibuster was the ninth longest in US history. It ended early Thursday morning after Republicans agreed to hold a vote considering two gun control measures that would require universal background checks for all firearm purchases and would bar anyone on a no-fly terror watchlist from buying guns. We speak with Caroline Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
TRANSCRIPT:
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to the gun control debate on Capitol Hill. For nearly 15 hours, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut led a filibuster calling for stricter gun control in the wake of the Orlando massacre that left 49 people dead. Murphy began the filibuster at 11:21 Eastern time in the morning on Wednesday. He kept the filibuster going until 2:11 this morning, saying Republicans have agreed to hold votes on measures to expand background checks and prevent people on US terror watchlists from buying guns. Murphy accused the Republican-led Senate of failing to address the nation’s gun epidemic.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: I think the people notice when we remain silent. I know it’s unintentional, but it almost seems to some people as if we don’t care about what happens, when we don’t try to do anything about it. And I understand that we have deep disagreements here about how to proceed, but with the — but with the exception of one week in 2013, we have not brought a debate to this floor in which we try to hash out our differences. Republican leadership didn’t announce in the wake of Orlando that we were going to spend this week working on trying to enact measures to make sure that another mass shooting doesn’t happen. And there’s a fundamental disconnect with the American…