US senator begs for gun law agreement after Texas school massacre kills over 20 students

US senator Chris Murphy has blasted politicians in an impassioned speech following the death of more than 20 people in a Texas school shooting.

US senator Chris Murphy made an impassioned speech following the death of more than 20 people in a Texas school shooting. Picture: Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images

A US senator has made an impassioned plea with the government to urgently address gun violence after more than 20 people were killed in a Texas mass school shooting.

Connecticut democratic senator Chris Murphy took to the Senate floor on Tuesday as the death toll continued climbing, begging colleagues to come to an agreement on tougher gun laws.

Drawing comparisons to previous school shootings, including the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre that killed 26 people, Mr Murphy said it was incomprehensible the government continued to “do nothing”.

“Mr President, there are 14 (now 19) kids dead in an elementary school in Texas right now. What are we doing? What are we doing?” Mr Murphy said.

The latest figures show that at least 19 children and two adults were killed in the massacre.

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A family grieves following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP

“Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African-American patrons, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands. What are we doing? There were more mass shootings than days in the year.”

He asked attendees why they bothered to “go through all the hassle of getting this job” if they remained insistent on doing nothing to address the country’s major gun violence problem.

“Our kids are living in fear. Every single time they set foot in a classroom, they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?

“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority?”

US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, has blasted the country’s gun laws. Picture: STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images

He said while “slaughter” had increased and children ran for their lives, “we do nothing”.

“What are we doing? Why are you here? If not, to solve a problem as existential as this.

This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren’t ‘unlucky’. This only happens in this country, and nowhere else,” he said.

“Nowhere else do kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.

“Nowhere else, do parents have to talk to their kids as I have had to do, about why they got locked into a bathroom and got told to be quiet for five minutes, just in case a bad man entered that building.”

Mr Murphy argued it was “our choice to let it continue”.

Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, students in one classroom were given the safe word “monkey” to use if they had a flashback about what they saw during the shooting, Mr Murphy said.

Law enforcement officers gather outside of Robb Elementary School following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP

“And over and over and over through the day, kids would stand up and yell, ‘monkey!’ And a teacher or paraprofessional would have to go over to that kid, take them out of the classroom, talk to them about what they had seen, work with them through their issues,” he revealed.

Mr Murphy said while the school community and the country would never be the same, those with power to make a change had continued to bury their heads in the sand.

“I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way, to pass laws to make this less likely,” he said.

Friends and families gather in mourning outside the Willie de Leon Civic Centre where grief counselling will be offered in Uvalde. Picture: Allison Dinner/AFP

“I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support.

But there is a common denominator that we can find.”

Mr Murphy said while a change in law couldn’t guarantee an immediate end to gun violence, it would “at least stop sending this quiet message of endorsement to these killers, whose brains are breaking, who see the highest levels of government doing nothing”.

“Shooting after shooting. What are we doing? Why are we here? What are we doing?”

Afterwards, he took an opportunity to reject the Republican view that gun violence was the result of mental illness and unrelated to relaxed gun laws.

“Spare me the bullsh*t about mental illness … We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world. You cannot explain this through a prism of mental illness because we’re not an outlier on mental illness,” he argued.

“We’re an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their arms on firearms. That’s what makes America different.”