A motion to bring a bill preventing people on the no-fly list from being able to purchase guns was brought to the Senate floor on Tuesday by Senator Chris Murphy. It wasn't brought up for a vote because he objected to an amendment offered by a Republican member of the Senate. Murphy also took the time to respond to criticism that Democrats are cashing in on a tragedy. He said that notion is "ridiculous and insulting".
"There's been a mass shooting every single day in this country on average. If you had to wait 24 hours or 48 hours to talk about strategies like preventing terrorists from buying guns that would keep this country safe after a mass shooting, then you'd never talk about them."
Murphy also used the opportunity to fire off his own criticism of opponents.
"Those who oppose this are more concerned with protecting the rights of potential terrorists than they are protecting this country."
Murphy called the measure a temporary inconvenience for the small number of people who are on the terrorist watch list, but shouldn't be. He says they have a means to get off that list. They would only have to wait a couple of more days or weeks to be able to buy a weapon.
Murphy says the list is made up of people that have given the FBI or other law enforcement to believe they are affiliated with a terrorist organization. He says those people may not have committed a crime yet, but had communications or affiliations with terrorist organizations.
"While today it's become partisan, Republicans are standing almost in lockstep against a bill to stop terrorists from getting guns, historically it's been bipartisan. This was initially proposed by President Bush and then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Let's make it bipartisan again."
Murphy said he was disappointed that the bill wasn't able to be voted on on Tuesday. But he said he would be back in the days, weeks and months to come to continue to ask for a vote on legislation that would make sure potential terrorists can't get their hands on dangerous, life-ending weapons.
