Constitution State News

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Friday kicked off the National Safer Communities Summit in Hartford, Connecticut. In his opening remarks, Murphy highlighted how far the anti-gun violence movement has come since Sandy Hook and the importance of gathering for this one-day event to celebrate the first anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and plan for the future.

“Last year, this month Congress passed the first major gun safety bill in 30 years: the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Now, it's a big deal for a few reasons. First, you know this, the NRA, the gun lobby fought this bill tooth and nail. Every other gun rights group lobbied hard against it, but it still passed with broad bipartisan support. And that is an outcome that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. And yes, it's true, there were some Republicans who just finally decided to do the right thing, there were some Republican hearts that softened, but mostly that outcome a year ago this month was just an exercise in sheer brute political force,” said Murphy.

Murphy highlighted the falling gun violence rates in 2023 so far, in part thanks to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: “All across the country, data from the first five months of 2023 shows that for the first time in a long time, gun violence rates in our biggest cities are falling. Now it's early days, right. We have seen trends heading in the right direction that don't play out, but if this trend continues, then there is just no way to explain that phenomenon. And it looks like the rates might be falling by over 10% in many places. That's great news. That's great news. There's no way to explain that other than the provisions in the funding in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”

He concluded: “And so I believe this in our bones, I believe that last summer represented a paradigm shift in the politics surrounding this issue. I believe the next decade is our decade. Today, we're going to take some time to talk about the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and how we can get implementation right, but that bill is just the start. Until we arrive at the moment when no child fears for their life in school, or on the walk to school, then our job is not done.”

Murphy, along with GIFFORDS and Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, is hosting President Joe Biden, elected leaders, Biden-Harris Administration officials, survivors of gun violence and hundreds of gun safety advocates for a one-day summit in Connecticut.

Murphy’s full opening remarks below:

“It is great to see a full house. Thank you all for traveling here. I got the chance to walk around the venue this morning, and I know we have people from all across the country who have joined us here today. And so I want to thank everyone who's with us here in person, I want to thank the thousands of people who are joining us online today for choosing to be part of the National Safer Communities Summit.

“Today is a really big day, and I just want to take my few minutes kicking off our discussion here to tell you why. First, we have brought together today the entirety of the anti-gun violence movement and that in and of itself is a big deal.

“I want to thank all of our participating sponsors. You can see their names on displays throughout the venue. In particular, I want to just thank a few. I want to thank Brady for their decades long legacy, leading this fight. I want to thank all of the student groups and youth groups who are here like March for Our Lives and Students Demand Action. And finally, this event could not have happened without Everytown, Moms Demand Action, and Giffords. Thank you to all three of those organizations. Those groups along with me are underwriting this event today.

“This summit is a small show of this movement's collective power, and when we work together, we are the strongest and we should do it more often.

“Second, today is a big deal because of what we are celebrating. Last year, this month Congress passed the first major gun safety bill in 30 years: the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

“Now, it's a big deal for a few reasons. First, you know this, the NRA, the gun lobby fought this bill tooth and nail. Every other gun rights group lobbied hard against it, but it still passed with broad bipartisan support. And that is an outcome that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. And yes, it's true, there were some Republicans who just finally decided to do the right thing, there were some Republican hearts that softened, but mostly that outcome a year ago this month was just an exercise in sheer brute political force, right.

“In the middle of one of the early Senate Republican private meetings on the bill, I want to tell you a story about what happened. I heard this story from one of my colleagues who were there presenting the early outlines of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act a few weeks before we took a vote on the Senate floor. In the middle of one of those meetings and an unnamed Republican senator stood up and lodged a complaint. The complaint was basically this, I'm paraphrasing.

“He said, ‘Why are you gonna make us vote on this bill?’ He's talking to the Republican sponsors of the bill. ‘I can't win either way. If I vote for this, I'm gonna get in trouble with the gun lobby. But even worse, if I vote against it, I'm gonna get in trouble with all my voters.’

“And listen that sounds like a simple thing to say, but that wouldn't have been uttered in a meeting like that 10 years ago, five years ago, even two years ago, because now for the first time, because of the movement that we have built it is gun safety voters, not the NRA, who matters most in Washington.

“And so today, we're going to talk about everything else that we still need to do, but we're also going to take a moment, the majority of today, to celebrate what we've done. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act involves five major changes in U.S. gun laws.

“First, it requires more background checks to be performed. Second, it places a waiting period and an enhanced background check on young buyers of assault rifles. Third, it helps states like Connecticut pass and implement red flag laws. Fourth, it makes gun trafficking a federal crime for the first time. And fifth, it takes guns away for all convicted domestic abusers. In total, this is the most significant package of changes in gun laws in 30 years.

“Now, that would be a big deal in and of itself, but we didn't stop there. The bill also contains $15 billion in funding for mental health, for school safety, and for community anti-gun violence programs. Now, I know that numbers, it's hard to know what's a big number what's a small number in Washington speak, but $15 billion dollars is a lot of money. That's going to save a lot of lives all across this country.

“And I want to pause here for just a minute because in this room, we have groups who here in Hartford are on the ground doing life-saving work that will be the recipients of this funding. We have in this room Mothers United Against Violence, give them a big round of applause.

“Mothers United Against Violence, they are running, they do a lot of work, but one of the things they do is to run compassion circles where victims and relatives of victims can come together and heal. In this room, we have Compass Youth Collaborative, give them a round of applause.

“We've got the Compass Youth Collaborative peacebuilders here and one of the things they do is provide counseling and wraparound services to youth that are at risk of falling into a life of violence.

“We've got Hartford Communities That Care in the room, give them a round of applause. They show up in emergency rooms, in the homes of grieving families right after a shooting to interrupt potential cycles of violence.

“And we've got the Brother Carl Hardrick Institute in the room, give them a round of applause. Carl is an inspirational leader in Hartford and amongst other tasks, the Institute brings together citizens and law enforcement to try to heal wounds and create new partnerships.

“And that's just an example of the work that we're doing right here in Hartford, one relatively small city, an example of the kind of groups that are being funded as we speak by that bill.

“And I've got some interesting news, some good news to share with you about what's going on in this country right now. All across the country, data from the first five months of 2023 shows that for the first time in a long time, gun violence rates in our biggest cities are falling. Now it's early days, right. We have seen trends heading in the right direction that don't play out, but if this trend continues, then there is just no way to explain that phenomenon and it looks like the rates might be falling by over 10% in many places. That's great news. That's great news. There's no way to explain that other than the provisions in the funding in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

“Third, and finally, today's a big day because Joe Biden's going to be here. Now, I'll have more to say about President Biden when he arrives, but I just want to be honest with you, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act would not have made it even to first base without Joe Biden. And Joe Biden’s not all we got today.

“You're going to have three panels up here that are talking about the implementation of the bill and the future of our movement. We've got great keynote addresses from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and some Meriden guy named Miguel Cardona. He'll be here. Gabby Giffords is going to be here, and she's going to be introduced by the best U.S. Senator from Connecticut, Dick Blumenthal.

“So we got a great lineup here for you today, and I'm so excited you're going to be a part of this. I just want to finish before turning the podium over to a few friends of mine, I want to finish with a quick story just to reinforce for you why we do this work. You don’t need anybody to preach to you, but let’s just talk about why the struggle is worth it.

“My wife Kathy and my two kids Owen and Rider are here along with my parents. A few years ago, Kathy, Owen, Rider and I moved our Connecticut home to the south end of Hartford just south of downtown. Our house is in a neighborhood that has pretty high rates of gun violence in the city. And shortly after we moved in, I reached out to Burr School, which is one of the local public middle schools, I asked whether we could convene a group of student leaders for me, kind of like an advisory group, a kitchen cabinet of kids who could just tell me what it's like to grow up in this neighborhood that we now live in and tell me how things could change.

“So every month I get together with this amazing group of kids and we just talk. And our first meeting, this was last year, I think, at the beginning of the school year, you know, as you can imagine, these kids were a little shy. Daniel and Kyreem and Meena, the others you know, they didn't exactly know what to say to a United States Senator sitting in their media center, but after a few minutes, they started to talk, and in that first meeting, they wanted to talk about one thing: they wanted to talk about their walk to and from school.

“For these kids, school was the safe place. This nation's attention may be captured understandably by the mass shootings, in particular the ones that are in our schools, but for these kids the most dangerous place is outside their school.

“Last Friday, we met again, and these kids were getting ready for the summer, and the topic turned in Friday's meeting to the difference between the sound of fireworks – which is a frequent occurrence in our neighborhood – and the sound of gunshots. I told them that I hadn't yet been able to distinguish the difference, but these kids knew. They explained to me the distinction how to know one from the other.

“And at the end of the discussion one eighth grade girl said out loud but kind of under her breath, kind of like she was just saying it to herself, she said ‘I shouldn’t need to know the difference.’

”And so, that is why we fight. That is why we don't let failure deter us. The nation's great social change movements, the ones that you read about in the history books, they're the ones that are so convinced by the righteousness of their cause that they don't let any obstacle or any setback get in their way.

“After Sandy Hook, when the modern anti-gun violence movement began, we endured a lot of failure, right? We lost vote after vote in Washington, but we did not quit. We kept organizing. We kept organizing. We kept organizing, right so that by last summer, we had more volunteers. We had more activists, we had more resources. We were stronger than the gun lobby was.

“And so I believe this in our bones, I believe that last summer represented a paradigm shift in the politics surrounding this issue. I believe the next decade is our decade. Today, we're going to take some time to talk about the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and how we can get implementation right, but that bill is just the start. Until we arrive at the moment when no child fears for their life in school, or on the walk to school, then our job is not done. Am I right?

“So thank you all for being here today in Hartford, Connecticut. Thank you for being a part of this movement.”

Original source can be found here