Opinion
By Larry Keane
After more than a decade of carrying the antigun torch, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has come to terms with the fact that voters are done toeing the line when it comes to major partisan political issues – including gun control.
Acknowledging the shift, Murphy recently told a crowd, “the fastest-growing share of the electorate are socially and culturally conservative voters who are economically populist.”
This awakening is fueling a resurgence of American pride and a collective desire to return to foundational principles, starting with the First and Second Amendments.
But it’s not just a political shift, it’s a cultural re-centering with a seismic effect so impressive that it has antigun politicians like Sen. Murphy scrambling for level ground.
“I think the future of our republic and the future of our party now depends on us building a big-tent party… and really being purposefully more permissive about who we let in…,” the Senator went on to say.
Of course, for Sen. Murphy, there is no room in his big tent for the guns.
The Will of The People
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that Americans trust Republicans’ ability to course correct over Democrats when it comes to issues like crime, immigration, extremism and yes – even gun control.
Americans are now starting to see that the gun control narrative is nothing more than lip service crafted to keep political support from a political base. Antigun politicians like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Murphy and others are realizing that to stay in office, they might need to abandon partisan dogma, particularly when it comes to gun control.
Industry Liability Lie
Sen. Murphy may understand his base has shifted center-right and recognize he and his fellow Democrats need to build a big-tent party for it to survive, but his own words suggest that ground may be hard to find.
Just one month ago, on September 2, 2025, Sen. Murphy played partisan politics in a Facebook video rebuking President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, claiming, “…this administration is going to do anything other than implement every single thing that the gun lobby and gun industry is asking for.”
When discussing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) in April 2025, Sen. Murphy stated, “For almost two decades, the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act prevented gun manufacturers from being held accountable for their role in the uniquely American epidemic of gun violence.”
On June 5, 2025, when discussing the PLCAA, Sen. Murphy stated, “There’s absolutely no reason why the gun industry should get special treatment when it comes to negligence. Their immunity from lawsuits effectively gives them a license to kill.”
He failed to mention that The Washington Post, CNN, PolitiFact, the Associated Press and others all fact checked and rebuked former President Joe Biden for making, and often repeating, that same false claim.
“Gun manufacturers can certainly be sued…Biden is wrong to say gun manufacturers are alone [with immunity],” was the Washington Post’s take.
Unconstitutional Universal Background Checks
Sen. Murphy had quite a bit to say about background checks in September 2019 when he, along with more than 20 Democratic senators, held the Senate floor to shame Republicans for refusing to agree to “common sense legislation” and demanding action on gun violence prevention legislation.
During his Senate floor remarks Sen. Murphy falsely claimed, “To explain our abnormally high rate of gun violence… you have to tell a story of the proliferation of dangerous weapons, of the ability of almost anyone, regardless of their criminal history or their history of illness, to be able to get their hands on a weapon… So, whether you want anecdotal evidence, or statistical data, I’ve got it all, background checks work.”
Never mind that to lawfully exercise Second Amendment rights by purchasing a firearm from a highly-regulated federal firearm retailer, the purchaser must pass an FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verification and submit an ATF Form 4473 attesting that the firearm they are purchasing is, in fact, for them – and not someone else.
And never mind that the universal background checks that Sen. Murphy badly want are federally prohibited by law and unworkable without a national firearm registry of privately owned firearms.
‘Assault Weapon’ Ban White Whale
If there’s one restriction Sen. Murphy and his allies want more than any other, it’s likely to ban the sale and possession of Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs), or the popular semiautomatic centerfire rifles like the AR-15. They mislabel them “assault weapons” and Sen. Murphy is all too eager to echo calls for them to be banned.
“Assault weapons are designed for one thing: to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible,” the senator falsely suggested. “These are weapons of war that have no place in our communities, and its long past time we treated them that way,” Sen. Murphy said in April 2025, the same month he joined U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to reintroduce a federal “assault weapons” ban.
He might want to ask his “big tent” voters how they would respond to a ban on MSRs. After all, there are more than 30 million MSRs in circulation. To put that in perspective, that’s more common than Ford F-150s on the road today (the most popular selling pickup truck in America). As NBC News reported, MSRs were also a popular among the more than 26 million first-time firearm purchasers over the past five years – including millions of self-described Independent and Democratic voters.
Reading the Tea Leaves
Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankel said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves,” and the saying is most apropos to Senator Murphy’s current situation. Americans have changed their situation in favor of Second Amendment rights and the ball is now in Sen. Murphy’s court.
Our Founding Fathers crafted the Second Amendment as a living safeguard to guarantee the rights of American citizens – not only in their lifetime, but for all time, including advancements in technology and societal changes. They understood that liberty is not bound to a single era or a specific set of tools, but to the enduring principle that free people must always have the means to protect themselves and their nation.
Given the bottomless number of repetitive and impotent calls for rigid ideological purity regarding the Second Amendment, it doesn’t seem like Senator Murphy will be able to lay down his gun control torch long enough to pitch the “big tent” party essential for his and his party’s political survival, that he himself declared was needed.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
Senator Chris Murphy is his own corollary to Murpy’s Law. “If anything bad can come of a policy, Sen. Murphy is in favor of it.”
another communist that needs to bite the dust ,and be left homeless and begging on the streets
F’ demonrat commies
I’m from Connecticut but I’m quite sure most of you know what no good beady eyed light in the loafers gun grabbing clown this fool Hissy Prissy Sissy Crissy Murphy is!!! He’s is NOT to be trust is the understatement of the century!!! Now let me tell you how I really feel about him… he’s a stain we here can’t get rid of!!!
Term Limits! Term Limits!
Here is the problem, Chris. The once-democratic party is built on a foundation of exclusion. The party is built on a foundation provided to them by the Frankfurt School of Marxists who created the Progressive New Left. The fundamental premise of that movement is that there are classes of people who do not deserve a seat at the table. People like me. So in order to inflate your tent you have to do it with hot air because you are just about plum out of victim classes to march under that ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign in to your big tent.… Read more »
Murphy embarrasses himself every-time he opens his mouth. Lately, he has taken off his mask and his policies are more about defending this countries criminals and enemies. One has to wonder what kind of constituents that keep putting him back into office.
“Americans are now starting to see that the gun control narrative is nothing more than lip service crafted to keep political support from a political base. Antigun politicians like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Murphy and others are realizing that to stay in office, they might need to abandon partisan dogma, particularly when it comes to gun control.” Which alternate universe are you living in? Right on cue, Gov. Newscum just signed four new anti-gun laws last week. AB-1078 enacts a 3-gun-purchases-per-month restriction (after the 1-gun-per-month law was struck down as unconstitutional); AB-1127 is an attempt to ban Glock sales in… Read more »
The NICS system – and any other system of background-check pre-authorization for a firearm purchase – flips one of the guiding principles of American law on its ear. Pre-purchase background checks operate from a presumption of guilt – i.e., you are guilty of a disqualifying factor unless we can prove you aren’t. To follow presumption of innocence, the background check would have to be run after you made your purchase and walked out with your gun. If you failed the check, the local police would then be notified, go to a judge for a warrant, and come arrest you.