Urge Majority Leader McConnell to Bring Gun Safety Measures to the Floor for a Vote

Video of Udall speaking on the Senate floor can be found here.

Video of Heinrich speaking on the Senate floor can be found here.

WASHINGTON— U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined dozens of their fellow Democratic senators in “holding the floor” for several hours Tuesday night and delivered back-to-back speeches on the Senate floor, calling again and again on Senate Republican leadership to honor the victims of gun violence with common-sense action. The senators urged Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring up measures to prevent gun violence and expand background checks to the floor for a vote.

“Last month, on August 22nd, an 86-year-old grandmother -- born and raised in my hometown of Santa Fe -- was gunned down while she was shopping at Wal-Mart in El Paso by a white supremacist with an AK-47 style assault weapon,” Udall said. “The American people are demanding Congress take action on this national crisis. After El Paso and Dayton, many of us implored Leader McConnell to call us back into session to vote on the gun safety bills sitting on his desk, gathering dust…Protecting our communities, schools, and churches cannot wait -- cannot be relegated to [Leader McConnell’s] legislative graveyard.  Too many lives have been lost.  Too many lives will be lost if we don’t act.”   

“Amid our grief and anguish, Americans have come together to call on their leaders to not let this senseless heart-wrenching violence continue unabated. They are calling on us to do something. The overwhelming majority of Americans—including gun owners like myself—agree that Congress needs to finally take real steps to address gun violence. It is long past time for us to finally turn our nation’s grief and frustration into meaningful action to protect our children and protect our communities,” said Heinrich.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 10,600 people have been killed by gun violence and there have been over 300 mass shootings in the United States this year. In their remarks, the senators honored the victims of gun violence, including victims in El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio, and Odessa, Texas during the August recess, in addition to many other victims nationwide.