SHARE

Murphy, Blumenthal Call For Senate To Act After Church Shooting In Texas

U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called for Senate action Sunday after more than two dozen people were killed in a mass shooting Sunday morning inside a church in Sutherland, Texas.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut

Photo Credit: www.murphy.senate.gov

"Can you sleep tonight, colleagues, when the price of gun lobby goodwill is this — blood-soaked church and school floors, city streets?" Murphy said on Twitter @ChrisMurphyCT.

“I share the horror, heartbreak and shame felt tonight as the nation endures yet another massacre of innocent lives," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Prayers are important, but insufficient. Congress is complicit in this unspeakable tragedy through its inexcusable inaction. Enough is enough — now is the time for common sense gun violence prevention measures.”

It's not know why the gunman — identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of Comal County — opened fire inside the rural church near San Antonio, NBC News said.

Kelley is also dead — although it was not know whether he killed himself or was taken down by police, NBC News said. The exact death toll was not clear early Sunday evening, and more people were also left injured.

"The paralysis you feel right now – the impotent helplessness that washes over you as news of another mass slaughter scrolls across the television screen – isn’t real. It's a fiction created and methodically cultivated by the gun lobby, designed to assure that no laws are passed to make America safer, because those laws would cut into their profits," Murphy said in a statement. 

“None of this is inevitable. I know this because no other country endures this pace of mass carnage like America. ... As long as our nation chooses to flood the county with dangerous weapons and consciously let those weapons fall into the hands of dangerous people, these killings will not abate," he said.

“As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets. Ask yourself – how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents.

“My heart breaks for Sutherland Springs. Just like it still does for Las Vegas. And Orlando. And Charleston. And Aurora. And Blacksburg. And Newtown. Just like it does every night for Chicago. And New Orleans. And Baltimore. And Bridgeport," Murphy said. "The terrifying fact is that no one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing in the face of this epidemic. The time is now for Congress to shed its cowardly cover and do something."

Gov. Dannel Malloy also released a statement calling for congressional action.

"This morning a church community in Texas gathered to pray in peace and now we pray for the deceased, the injured, and their friends and families," Malloy said. "For the sake of all communities across the country, this madness of mass shootings needs to end once and for all. Congress needs to finally take up and pass commonsense gun control measures so that tragedies like this one never happen again."

to follow Daily Voice Stratford and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE