Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has acknowledged that they do not have the 60 votes needed in the Senate to move forward with a bill to restrict access to assault weapons, such as those used by Anderson Lee Aldrich last week at an LGBTI club in Colorado, killing five people.
Murphy has welcomed the fact that U.S. President Joe Biden has been pushing for Congress to vote on a ban on such weapons, although he noted that the situation in the Senate is different from that in the House of Representatives, where a ban on their use was supported at the end of July.
«Do we have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not. But let’s see if we can try to get that number as close to 60 as possible,» acknowledged Murphy, who, nevertheless, is confident that by next year things could start to be different if the Democrats keep their seat in Georgia, while the final recounts of the last midterm elections continue.
At the same time, Murphy has also pointed out on CNN the need to initiate a debate in the Senate on funding for law enforcement in those counties that refuse to enforce national and state gun laws.
«They have decided that they will refuse to enforce the laws that are on the books. That’s a growing problem in this country» and «I think we’re going to have to have a conversation about that in the Senate,» said the Democratic senator, who charged that «60 percent of counties» are refusing to implement these gun control laws. We have to do something about it,» he said.
