Washington – Connecticut’s members of Congress called for calm, prayers, healing and justice in the wake of the shooting of five police officers in Dallas and the slaying by police of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana. But Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also slammed Congress for failure to pass new gun control measures.
“Our children are being murdered. Our neighbors, gunned down. Our police officers, assassinated. And Congress is still silent,” Murphy said. “I cannot fathom the level of cynicism it must take to look at the drumbeat of murder in our streets and conclude that there is nothing Washington can or should do to try and stop it.”
The officers were killed by a sniper, identified by police as military veteran Micah Xavier, during a protest in Dallas over recent police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana.
Connecticut’s Democratic lawmakers decried the police shooting of black men in St. Paul and Baton Rouge and of the police officers in Dallas, calling for healing and reconciliation.
“The heart-wrenching tragedies over the past days test the legal fabric and moral resolve of our great nation,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, said, “It seems at times our nation barely begins to process the grief and trauma of one tragedy before another sends us reeling again.”
“The need to unite is not a wishful dream, but rather a grim necessity if we are to stop the havoc that threatens us all,” Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said in a statement.
Murphy, who held a 15-hour filibuster to press for votes on gun bills last month, also called for unity.
But he also called for action
“I pray we can stay united by a shared desire to prevent more families from knowing the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence,” he said.