For years, Democrats have implored their leaders to display passion for the ideas they care about, instead of the poll-tested bloodlessness that too often defines them. Senator Chris Murphy’s 14-hour, 50-minute filibuster over gun control was a strange combination of both.

Murphy and the 37 colleagues who joined him in the talk-a-thon were obviously committed to stirring the conscience of a nation for action on guns in the wake of last weekend’s mass murder in Orlando. “Every single day there are 80 sets of families who begin the process of grief surrounding the taking of a life through a firearm,” Murphy said at one point. “And their process of healing for many of them is encumbered by the fact that their leaders are not doing anything to stop it.”

But what were Murphy and friends really asking for? A narrow set of wedge-issue measures, one of which would carry terrible implications for civil liberties. And Democrats readily admit they chose these measures, instead of more far-reaching ideas that would really target dangerous mass shootings, because they polled well.

The official goal of Murphy’s filibuster was to get a vote on two amendments to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. One expands the criminal and mental-health background check system to cover all private sales, like gun shows and online retailers. The other, known as “No Fly No Buy,” would ban anyone on the FBI’s terrorist watch list in the past five years from obtaining a gun. The theory goes that if we can ban terror suspects from flying on an airplane (as we do for certain watchlist members), we should ban them from purchasing firearms. By 2 a.m. Thursday morning, Senate Republicans had agreed to hold votes on the amendments, but not necessarily to approve them.

What were Murphy and friends really asking for? A narrow set of wedge-issue measures, one of which would carry terrible implications for civil liberties.

This isn’t an enormous victory. The Senate voted on the same two provisions last December, after the San Bernardino shooting. They failed. The universal background check bill also went down after Sandy Hook. It’s fine to use the Orlando shooting as an opportunity to see if senators have moved on the issues. But if the Democrats are trying to get vulnerable Republicans on the record against gun-control measures before the election, that’s already been done.