Sen. Murphy Rips into Congress Over Gun Control Inaction

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is clearly unhappy with his colleagues in Congress when it comes to responses to mass shootings.

Murphy helped set-off a Twitter firestorm Wednesday night after tweeting that thoughts should be about steps to take after carnage and prayers should be about forgiveness if lawmakers do nothing again.

He was retweeted more than 18,000 times and received 14,000 favorites as of Thursday afternoon.

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“Congress’ number one responsibility is to keep our constituents safe, and not a single senator or member of Congress can go back to their state this weekend and claim that they are doing their job,” Murphy said in a statement.

Murphy told Vox.com that he is sick and tired of his collegues’ Twitter platitudes. He clarified his tweet and said that thoughts and prayers are important, but they shouldn’t be the beginning and end of action.

He also said if he could tell his colleagues tweeting about thoughts and prayers after mass shootings one thing it would be to “get off their ass.”

Several lawmakers and GOP presidential candidates took offense to comments in the media about thoughts and prayer. Presidential hopeful and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said he was offended and shocked by sly and snooty comments about how prayer doesn’t influence lives, according to the Washington Examiner.

Murphy wasn’t the only person to criticize politicians who offered thoughts and prayers via Twitter. Think Progress contributing editor Igor Volsky began retweeting lawmakers who offered thoughts and prayers along with information about how much money they received from pro-gun groups.

Murphy also criticized the increase in lobbying dollars put out by the National Rifle Association and Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation.

“This troubling report exposes the money behind the politics of gun lobbies like the NSSF,” he said. “The NSSF is spending millions of dollars to prevent expanded background checks and protect immunity for gun manufacturers.”