HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut’s two Democratic senators are reintroducing legislation expanding federal background checks for firearms sales.
U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal acknowledge it will be challenging to pass the bill in the Senate, but they’re optimistic there will be political pressure on their colleagues if similar gun control legislation clears the now-Democratic controlled U.S. House of Representatives.
The senators appeared Monday at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
Their bill expands background checks to the sale or transfer of all firearms by private sellers, with certain exceptions.
House Democrats are introducing similar legislation Tuesday, the same day Murphy and Blumenthal will file their bill. The National Rifle Association says such legislation is ineffective and doesn’t stop criminals.
Murphy says the “political pressure is increasingly impossible for our colleagues to ignore.”
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