Sen. Murphy (D-Conn.): Any Law Congress Passes ‘Will Have a Chilling Effect’ on Mass Killings

HARLOW: “What about this shooting and the fact that this gunman as far as we know right now did not have any sort of documented history of mental illness. Obviously something was completely wrong with him. He idolized other mass shooters but what do you do about this situation, senator?” 
MURPHY (via phone): “Well, listen, I don't think you can craft a legislative solution to every single incident of violence in this country. And so I don't think that we should expect that anything that we're going to enact in Washington is going to stop shootings. But there are plenty of instances, including the Connecticut shooting and the South Carolina shooting in which better gun laws could have made a difference. In South Carolina that guy got a gun because of the loophole in the background checks law that allowed the retailer to give him a gun despite the fact that he hadn't passed the background check. And this whole culture of mass violence in which Congress does nothing I think sends a message to a lot of these individuals who are becoming unhinged in their mind that it's OK to go out and commit these murders because no one seems to be doing anything to stop it, and so why should I think any differently than everybody else that I see on the news carrying out this kind of violence. There's no one legislative solution, but there are changes that will make a difference, and Congress acting -- just the action of Congress in any way, shape, or form will have a chilling effect on this trend.”