Senators Bring Gun Control Discussion Back to Campus

(Above and below) U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy hold a media briefing Friday at Regents Commons in the Shaw Center.

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy returned to the University of Hartford Friday morning in the wake of President Obama’s recent visit here, to hold a media briefing on efforts to pass gun control legislation in the U.S. Senate.

Blumenthal and Murphy, both Democrats from Connecticut, spoke to about a dozen media outlets during a briefing at Regents Commons in the Shaw Center at Hillyer College.

They chose to hold their briefing at the University of Hartford as a follow-up to President Barack Obama’s high-profile speech on gun control at the Sports Center on Monday.

Blumenthal and Murphy said that this week’s lobbying in Washington by family members of the Newtown shooting victims had a tremendous impact on the debate over measures to reduce gun violence. Meeting personally with the Newtown families was a powerful and persuasive experience for many senators, they said.

Blumenthal and Murphy said they are pleased that an effort by some Republican senators to block a vote on gun control measures has failed, but they realize that that is just a first step.

The senators said they are cautiously optimistic about a successful vote to enact universal background checks for all gun buyers, and they expect that a Senate vote on that measure could take place as early as Tuesday. In his speech at the University on Monday, President Obama said that 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks for gun buyers.