Sen. Chris Murphy: Republican Lawmakers Have Failed Young People On Gun Control. But The Fight Isn't Over

By Senator Chris Murphy


Soon following the February 14, 2018, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Lane Murdock, a sophomore at Ridgefield High School in Connecticut, started planning a protest. The shooting, in which 17 people were killed, ultimately lead to a national tidal wave of students walking out of their classrooms across the nation to protest adults’ lack of action on gun safety, particularly in schools. Sixty miles away in Hartford, a crowd of teens who survive with the everyday reality of gun violence in their neighborhood gathered to talk about the factors that fueled this violence and why they could break that cycle. Meanwhile, an audience of students in Parkland huddled in their parents’ living rooms and started planning what would become one of the single biggest protest marches in American history.


Today, kids grow up with the epidemic of gun violence as a horrifying day-to-day worry. For today’s teenagers, school shootings have routinely been a reality. More than 200,000 students have been exposed to gun violence at school in the last 20 years. And for millions of kids, the risk of being shot simply increases while they leave school. 100 people perish from a gunshot wound each and every day – even on days without a school shooting — and in several neighborhoods, gunshots are a near nightly occurrence.


The Parkland shooting was the last straw for a lot of young people, some of whom had already been working for years to curb gun violence. They saw how lawmakers did nothing soon after Newtown, and Aurora, and Charleston, and Pulse, and Las Vegas, and Sutherland Springs, and multiple other shootings. They watched the people who were supposed to repair things distribute empty thoughts and prayers, followed by absolutely no action. They saw politicians who were more accountable to the National Rifle Association than to their own voters. And so they were done with it. It was time to take matters into their own hands and hold their elected officials accountable.


So marched. And so they walked out. And most importantly, they registered to vote. Young people went to the polls, and so they got their parents companions family members and friends to vote with them. They added enormous strength to the growing movement to end gun violence, bringing new voices into the fold and amplifying the ones who'd sounded the alarm for years.


and yes it worked.


In the 2018 midterm elections, voter turnout spiked to a 100-year high. Turnout among young people alone jumped 16 points. And once people turned out to the polls, gun violence was a top provide. As a result, 26 congressional incumbents who boasted A-ratings from the NRA were replaced by candidates willing to fight for stronger gun laws. The NRA lost big, and not just in the places you’d expect: Candidates who stood strong against gun violence won in swing districts in states like Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota, and Texas.


The new Democratically-controlled Home of Representatives didn’t waste as soon as getting to work. They passed HR8, a commonsense bill that says in the event you desire to purchase a gun, you must pass a background check. It was the initial major segment of legislation intended to curb gun violence passed by the Home in more than 20 years.


It’s been exactly each year since the Home passed HR8. Nevertheless as an alternative opposed to being debated and brought up for a vote in the Senate, HR8 is sitting on Mitch McConnell’s desk gathering dust. Despite the fact that more than 90 percent of Residents of the United States want universal background checks, McConnell won’t even bring the bill for a up or down vote.


So our work continues. In 2020, we have the potential to elect president along with a Congress that can get real reforms over the finish line — regarding both gun violence and other pressing national issues – and I have no doubt that young people will continue to lead the charge.


there really is no excellent social change movement in this nation that hasn't been led by the youth of America. Creating big change isn't easy. Tearing down the status quo is a process filled with setbacks. Nevertheless the social change movements we read about in our history books succeeded because they continued to persevere in the face of adversity — and because young people were almost habitually at the frontlines of these costs. The movement to end gun violence is no different. And due to the young people leading this fight, I am confident that we'll win.


Chris Murphy is a United States Senator from Connecticut. He is the author of the Background Checks Expansion Act and is one of the most outspoken lawmakers in Washington fighting to pass commonsense gun laws.