SIMSBURY, CT (WFSB) -
United States Sen. Chris Murphy visited the Connecticut State Police Gun Range in Simsbury Friday morning to experience a demonstration of military-style assault weapons.
At the gun range, Connecticut State Police demonstrated the power of the assault rifles. Murphy donned a bulletproof vest to watch a semi-automatic assault rifle and even an automatic assault rifle in action.
"It's scary to watch how fast a 223 can dispense 30 rounds of ammunition," he said.
Murphy recently joined members of Congress to introduce the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, which would ban certain military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
On Friday, Murphy learned the difference between what's a legal and an illegal semi-automatic assault rifle in our state.
"So this is basically the same rifle except it's Connecticut compliant, it's the same size, it has the fixed stock, does not have the flash suppressor on the front," said Sgt. Shawn Corey with Connecticut State Police. "But the same magazine will go in both guns and it will shoot almost identically the same."
After the demonstration, Murphy discussed further why he wants a federal ban keeping semi-automatic assault rifles, such as the one used in Newtown school shooting, off the streets.
He told Eyewitness News that he believes they pose a greater risk to the public than a semi-automatic handgun.
"These assault rifles are more dangerous in part because they can often take bigger capacity magazines and also because they tend to give shooters a false sense of confidence about what they can do," Murphy said. "I don't know why Adam Lanza walked into that school, but I do think that his access to a military-style assault weapon that he may have used in video games gave him a sense of confidence that he might not otherwise have had, if he simply had a pistol."
Murphy is also an original co-sponsor of the Ammunition Background Check Act of 2013, which requires instant background checks for the sale of gun ammunition. He also supports limiting magazines to 10-round capacity.
He told Eyewitness News that all these measures will not guarantee something such as the Newtown shooting will never happen again.
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