For 14 hours and 50 minutes, Connecticut senator Chris Murphy took to the Senate floor demanding a vote on expanding gun background checks and preventing those on the terror watch lists from buying firearms.
As Sen. Chris Murphy stood on the Senate floor for most of Wednesday and into Thursday, he spoke about the 2012 mass shooting in his home state of Connecticut where a shooter killed 20 first grade students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary.
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“I want to introduce you to Dylan Christopher Jack Hockley, who in this picture is age six,” Murphy told the Senate, holding up a photo. “According to just about everybody who knew him it was impossible not to fall in love with Dylan Hockley if you met him.”
Murphy took the floor Wednesday morning at 11:21 a.m. speaking in the wake of the mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida nightclub that killed 49 people, and said he would remain there “until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together.”
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He finished the filibuster Thursday at 2:11 a.m. ET.
The Connecticut senator told the story of Dylan Hockley and one of his teachers, Anne Marie Murphy, who is credited with having shielded the boy from the gunman.
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“When Adam Lanza walked into that classroom and aimed his military style assault weapon with clips attached to it holding 30 bullets, Ann Marie Murphy probably had a chance to run, or to hide or to panic, and instead Ann Marie Murphy made the most courageous decision that any of us could imagine,” he continued.
“Instead of running, instead of hiding, instead of panicking, Ann Marie Murphy found Dylan Hockley and embraced him. You know why we know that? Because when the police entered the classroom that’s how they found Dylan Hockley, dead wrapped in the embrace of Ann Marie Murphy.”
Murphy said that it doesn’t take courage to stand on a floor for 14 hours, but “It takes courage to look into the eye of a shooter and instead of running, wrapping your arms around a 6-year-old boy and accepting death as a trade for just the tiny, little piece of mind, of increased peace of mind of a little boy under your charge.”
Following his speech, Murphy announced the Senate agreed to vote on universal background checks as well as closing a loophole which allows Americans on terrorist watch lists to buy guns.
The Associated Press reported the amendments are unlikely to pass as the Republican controlled Senate voted down bills in December that proposed similar measures.
*With files from the Associated Press
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