Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said the Brown University shooting was a result of President Donald Trump’s “dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country.”
Murphy said, “If you look at states like Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California that have stronger laws, we have gun violence rates, murder rates, mass shooting rates that are two to 3 to 4 times lower than states that have loose gun laws. And many of the weapons that are used in our states for gun crimes come to our states from those states that have an ability for criminals and people with serious mental illness to buy weapons. So what we know is that stronger laws do work. Since we passed that bill in 2022, the first bill in 30 years that strengthens the nation’s gun laws, gun violence rates and mass shooting rates have come down in this country. But this is not shocking because over the last year, President Trump has been engaged in a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country. He is restoring gun rights to felons and people who have lost their ability to buy guns. He eliminated the White House office of gun violence protection, and he has stopped funding mental health grants and community anti-gun violence grants that Republicans and Democrats supported in that 2022 bill. So he has been engaged in a pretty deliberate campaign to try to make violence more likely in this country. I think you’re unfortunately going to see the results of that on the streets of America.”
Host Dana Bash said, “That’s a pretty big statement. He’s a campaign to make violence more likely.”
Murphy said, “Of course. I mean, he’s knowingly restoring gun rights to dangerous people. He is cutting off grants that have bipartisan support to try to interrupt violence in our cities or to try to get necessary mental health resources to families and children in need. The evidence tells you that when you stop funding mental health, when you stop funding community anti-gun violence programs, when you give gun rights back to dangerous people, you are going to have an increase in violence that is knowable and that is foreseeable.”
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