0 that is tonight's last word, the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. good evening once again, i'm stephanie ruhle, it's no disguise, you know exactly what we're here to talk about tonight, and it has been nearly 31 hours since this moment on the senate floor, that caught all of our attention. >> 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. by doing something, we 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? i yield the floor. >> with us tonight, connecticut senator chris murphy. senator, i turn that question to you. it has been 24 hours, what are we doing? >> i was presiding over the senate last night or yesterday afternoon, when i look down at my phone and saw that another sandy hook had happened, 19 kids in texas. i went straight to my desk, and that was the question that i kept on asking myself. it was the question that i spontaneously asked my colleagues. what are we doing? why are we here? why do you care so much about being a united states senator, if in the face of this evil and carnage, with all these parents who are just so frightened for their kids, all these kids so frightened for themselves. what are we doing? nothing cannot be the answer. stephanie, i spent all day today from the minute i woke up, until i literally sat down in this chair, talking to everybody i could in the senate, republicans and democrats asking that question. what are you gonna do? are you prepared to sit down and find a bipartisan path forward. i don't know if you will be able to get their. but i found enough republicans today that were willing to talk, but over the next 7 to 10 days, we will have a discussion. privately, confidentially, behind closed doors as to whether there are 60 votes in the senate to pass something and make sure that less people have less access to dangerous weapons, or less dangerous people have access to dangerous weapons. we will see, but i'm a little bit exhausted at the end of the day. and i'm also really hopeful, that we will be able to convene a conversation in the senate over the course of the next week, about bipartisan support for anti gun violence legislation. >> but, where those republicans willing to talk to you today, because 19 precious babies were massacred yesterday. a week, for now two weeks for, now do you think they are going to sit down and more than have a conversation? you've been at this for a decade. >> yes, i've been at this for a, decade but i also understand that great social change moments in this country often take more than a decade to effectuate change. remember, it was more than a decade from the shooting of james brady in 1981, one to the passage of the brady bill, the handgun legislation. it was more than a decade from open casket of emmet till to the voting rights act. i understand that sometimes these important movements take a long time. i think the pressure on the republicans will ask themselves over the course of the next few days, is will i pay a price this november, if i sit on my hands again. in 2018, republicans did pay a price for doing nothing. and i think it needs to be voters, citizens, and activists over the next few days, pepper these members officers with calls, emails, tell them that if they don't get down to work with people like me, who are willing to compromise, but they are not going to get reelected. that's the question that our republican colleagues will be asking themselves over the course of the next week. >> let's say they don't budge. what are three things democrats can do tomorrow? the filibuster is not going through. >> so, we need to ultimately have a debate and vote, but senator schumer has said, and i agree with, him is let's give some space for these bipartisan talks, but let's put a time limit on that. i think by this time next week, we will have a sense as to whether there is any hope. if we can achieve a bipartisan compromise, and let's have a vote in the senate, let's have a vote on the background checks bill in front of the house. let's have a vote on red flag laws. democrats can put up votes in the senate. force republicans to vote up or down, that's one thing we can. the second thing we can do is continue to build this movement. to work with groups like brady, and -- moms who demand action, at every town. students demand action, and march for our lives. we can work with them to grow our numbers, so they're more powerful in the coming election. you asked for three, things i could give you three, things we can work with the biden administration to make sure they are examining every single executive action possible if congress fails to act, and there are things that the administration could do on their own to tighten up the nation's gun laws. >> examining executive actions doesn't do anything. is there one executive action, if you had the presidency, the you'd like him to take tomorrow? >> so, one of the things we're gonna talk about in these bipartisan negotiations, no doubt, is the definition of what it means to be engaged in the sale of firearms. you have to do a background check if you are engaged in the business of selling firearms. the problem is, there are a ton of these online sellers, and people who go to a lot of sellers, who claim that they are not engaged in the business, but they've got another business in this is just their side hustle. many of them are selling dozens of firearms every year, the making lots of money, there should be licensed firearm dealers, they should be conducting background checks. i'm hoping to get legislation that clarifies that. but, the administration could act on. that so, if we fail, i would certainly ask the administration to look at regulation, or executive action that makes four than everybody who was legitimately doing business as a firearms dealer in this country, is licensed as a firearms dealer, and is conducting background checks. >> i want to understand, because the nra, ironically, tragically, is having their big event in texas in just a few days. i want to understand the stranglehold they have over the republican party. we hear it every day, polls show most americans want some kind of gun reform, but basically nothing is done. so, can you explain the roadblock? is it when you combine republicans, because there is lots of republicans that are not hard-core nra supporters. you represent connecticut, there's a whole lot of really rich greenwich connecticut republicans who have no affinity for guns, especially not assault rifles. is it the combination of republicans that are beholden to the nra, and republicans who are rich and what their taxes really low, or single issue republicans who really just care about limiting a woman's right to choose, is it when you combined that trifecta the nra gets their way, because those other republicans who care about taxes and abortion, they're not paying attention? >> yeah, listen, i'll be honest with you stephanie, i don't know that i completely understand what the answer to that question is. but, i've been engaged in a process of trying to discover that answer for ten years. and i'll share with you two thoughts. one, i think that the nra has been very smart to associate the issue of guns with a broader set of values, right? republicans that want to talk about issues, like freedom, liberty, and abusing the issue of unrestricted gun ownership as the prism through which they talk about their affection for those values. it's strange, because there are plenty of other ways to demonstrate that you care about individual liberty, other than the question of firearm ownership. the second issue here, is that the republican party over the course of the last ten years have kind of become devoid of ideas out of and the destruction of government. the republican party used to have big ideas, but now they're one idea is just have less government. no organization stands more solidly against government then the nra. which stands for the right to arm themselves and rubble rebellion against the government. the nra's endorsement, has become sort again we just have to find another way for republicans to be able to translate how much they hate government, other than the endorsement of the gun industry. we've got a solve for these problems, but i think that's part of what's happening here. >> when i'm gonna ask you about here is a big gruesome, but you're sort of taking me there. it's not just about a right to bear arms. i want to ask you about assault weapons. you wrote yesterday in a tweet, what it's like for these parents. imagine dropping your third grader off to school, and in order to retrieve them, to identify them, you need a dna test, because when someone is shot by an ar-15 style weapon, their body is essentially destroyed. they are massacred. you've seen these images, explain to us what these parents are going, through what they have to experience, because it's so far beyond a right to bear arms, what happened yesterday. >> so, the bullets coming out of an ar-15 15 style weapon are traveling so fast, that when they enter the flesh they destroy everything in its path. somebody once said to me, it's like taking your hand in a sink full of water, and going very very slowly through it, and that's what a bullet from an old school revolver may do to your flash, but then take that same finger and rip it through that sink full of water, and you watch what happens to the surface of that water. it just spills over the side of the bull, it takes 13 minutes before resettles. that's what happens with the bullet from an ar-15 moves through the body of a child. so, it is true, some of these kids are unrecognizable after they've had 14 bullets go through their head, their neck, their torso. it is true that sometimes only dna can identify who these kids are. and i just want people to understand, that. i want people to understand why there are no open caskets after sandy hook. think about whether you want another set of families to go through that. i was there that evening in sandy hook, connecticut. i was standing outside that room when governor malloy told 20 sets of parents that kids were lined out on the floor. i don't know why anyone want another family to go through that, and there's something particularly vicious about what an ar-15 does to children's bodies. there's a reason why not a single kid who was shot and sandy hook survived, because those are weapons designed to kill human beings, and as many human beings as quickly as possible. i just don't know why they deserve a place in civilized society. >> what is this community in texas about to go through? the law enforcement, the families, the whole community. you've experienced it in connecticut, what is about to happen in texas? >> it's a community that will never, ever be the same. i don't think you can really understand how deep this trauma is going to be. connected to every single kid who lost their life are 20 people who care about them, who are going to go through some diagnose-able trauma. every single kid in the school is going through trauma right now, because they came so close to losing their lives, every single first responder who walked into that school is going to go through something horrific that no one should ever have to experience. and in a small community, that touches nearly everyone. that community never, ever recovers from this, and sandy hook is a wonderful place, and there are plenty of families that are finding ways to heal their. but sandy hook will never, ever be the same. i know there are going to be resources there, for the families in uvalde, but they won't be enough, and i just want people to understand that. because, your community could be next. your community could be next, if we do nothing, again. that's why i need people to rise up right now, and get up tomorrow morning and make a call to your senator, make a culture member of congress, tell them that you don't want your school and your community to be next, and you want congress to do something about it. >> senator murphy has agreed to stay with us, please, do because on the other side of the break i want to talk more about your journey, ten years after sandy hook, when you were elected to office i don't think you were going to choose gun reform as your top issue, and it's become your life's work.