Senate Democrats end marathon filibuster, announce Republicans agree to gun control vote

By Karoun Demirjian June 16 at 4:00 AM

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) ended a blockade of the Senate floor after nearly 15 hours Thursday, announcing Republican leaders had agreed to hold votes on Democrat-backed measures to expand background checks and prevent suspected terrorists from acquiring guns.

Democrats were angling for votes on the two gun control measures, which they are presenting as amendments to a pending spending bill, demanding that it was the least the Senate could do to respond to the Orlando massacre that killed 49 last weekend.

“We still have to get from here to there, but we did not have that commitment when we started,” Murphy said early Thursday, crediting his filibuster with pressuring leaders to commit to the votes, though he noted there was “no guarantee that those amendments pass.”

The Democrats’ bid for votes on their preferred measures intensified Wednesday as efforts to strike a gun control compromise with Republicans frayed.

Early on Wednesday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) was in talks with a gun control advocacy organization backed by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to craft a measure that Republicans could live with to prevent terrorists from obtaining firearms.

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