Flags have been directed to be lowered to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.  U.S. and state flags in Connecticut will fly at half-staff beginning immediately until sunset on Friday.  All other flags--including municipal, corporate, or otherwise – should also be lowered during this time as well.

4th District Congressman Jim Himes says the families destroyed, lives disrupted and violence rained down on a peaceful music festival are the stuff of nightmares.  He expressed gratitude to the first responders who mitigated the loss of life and rushed into harm’s way. 

But Himes says once again, Congress will retreat into grief and silence.  Himes staged a walk out during a moment of silence held in honor of the shooting victims at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last year, saying he refused to stand in silence doing nothing while his fellow Americans were being slaughtered.  Until Congress takes action, Himes says this terrible story will play out again and again and again and again.

5th District Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty released a statement saying that her heart aches after another day marred by senseless violence.  She called for a way forward, with responsible gun owners at the table, to find a solution.  She says a message needs to be sent that, when it comes to gun violence, there is more that unites Americans than divides.  Esty is a vice chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

“If you think what happened today was acceptable; if you think hundreds of Americans gunned down at a country music festival by a single man with an arsenal in his hotel room is fine, then do nothing."

Senator Richard Blumenthal says while many details of the mass shooting in Las Vegas remain unclear, one thing is certain: another community is torn apart by a gunman.  He says thousands more have been lost to the daily, ruthless toll of gun violence, yet Congress hasn't taken any action.

Senator Chris Murphy says his heart goes out to the victims, their families and first responders in Las Vegas.  But he continued to say that horrific large-scale mass shootings are now happening with a degree of regularity.  He called it infuriating that his colleagues are ignoring public policy responses to what he called an epidemic.  Murphy called the thoughts and prayers of politicians 'cruelly hollow' if they are paired with legislative indifference.