The Slatest

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy: “It’s Time for Congress to Get Off Its Ass and Do Something”

Chris Murphy at the Capitol on July 12, 2016.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Chris Murphy, now a Connecticut senator, represented the House district that includes Newtown, Connecticut, when 20 children and six adults were shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He has since been one of Congress’ foremost advocates of gun control legislation, prominently conducting a 15-hour filibuster to protest inaction on the subject after the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida. His response to the news that at least 50 people were killed and 400 injured by a heavily armed man in Las Vegas on Sunday night was direct:

This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic. There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.

The Las Vegas shooter has been identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, a Nevada man who was found dead by police on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino. It’s not yet clear how he obtained the weapons used in the shooting.

Read more in Slate about the mass shooting in Las Vegas.