Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said he welcomes the bipartisan gun safety agreement in the U.S. Senate.
He said he’s glad that the state’s junior U.S. senator played a major role in the bipartisan agreement.
“I’m proud of the fact that Senator Chris Murphy helped take the lead on behalf of the Democrats to bring folks together to make some progress," Lamont said. "We still have a long way to go. We're making progress. And people will be a little bit safer once these rules kick in."
The deal is a big step forward because it has the support of 10 Republican senators, he said. That’s enough for the 60-vote margin needed to pass in the evenly divided U.S. Senate.
“I love what it does about the red flag laws," he said. "I love what it does in terms of enhanced background checks. Look, it doesn’t go as far as what we are doing here in Connecticut, but if the rest of the country starts to move in this direction, it makes Connecticut safer and it makes the rest of the country safer."
Lamont said he wished the deal could have gone further and included a provision to raise the age requirement for the purchase of assault-style weapons from 18 to 21.
Connecticut law bans the purchase of such weapons and high capacity magazines.
