Support for gun control has hit its lowest point in almost a decade since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. That’s according to a Gallup poll released last month.
On the ninth anniversary of the Newtown shooting, Connecticut’s U.S. Senators hope that could be changing.
Gun violence prevention measures have gained traction across the country since Sandy Hook and subsequent mass shootings in other states, said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy.
“That shows that change is on the way. It starts in blue and purple states but it will reach Washington D.C.,” Murphy said.
President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act that could win congressional approval in the coming weeks would be a first step, said Murphy.
“The Build Back Better Act is a historic $5 billion investment in anti-gun violence programming,” he said.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal is optimistic that a federal background check might finally get passed in the senate.
“As Senator Murphy and I said when we sought unanimous consent to move forward on the background checks bill last week, our hope is that we will have change after this,” Blumenthal said.
Advocates from the Newtown Action Alliance and the Community Violence Intervention Program said they’d like the U.S. Senate to get rid of the filibuster. That would allow for federal gun violence prevention legislation to pass with a simple majority, they said.
