CT Delegation Blasts Congress as Complicit in Orlando

As a Connecticut resident, I am proud to see that my congressional delegation has just about had enough of their colleagues who refuse to do anything to combat gun violence. Having had to deal with the devastating losses at Sandy Hook, they certainly can sympathize with what Florida and Orlando are going through now.

Yesterday, it was Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal who called out their fellow legislators as “complicit” in the massacre in Orlando. Said Murphy, “Congress has become complicit in these murders by its total, unconscionable deafening silence. This doesn’t have to happen, but this epidemic will continue without end if Congress continues to sit on its hands and do nothing — again.” And that was followed by Representative Jim Himes who rebuked his fellow House members saying, “I will not attend one more ‘Moment of Silence’ on the Floor. Our silence does not honor the victims, it mocks them.”

Although the Orlando shooter’s link to terrorists does not look like the prime motivating factor in his gunning down over a hundred people, even if he had been put on a watch list by the FBI, who had questioned him on at least two separate occasions, he still would have been able to legally buy the assault weapon he used. That is because Senate Republicans nearly unanimously voted down a measure restricting the ability of people on the federal terrorism watch list to buy a weapon. Because nothing should apparently get in the way of your constitutional right own a military weapon – even if you’re a terrorist.