Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal was midway through a speech on gun violence on the Senate floor when he learned that a deadly school shooting had taken place minutes earlier in California.

"We are complicit in these deaths if we fail to act," Blumenthal said after Republican senators blocked a vote on universal background checks.



An aide then passed him a note informing him there had been a shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, in which two students were killed and three others were injured.



"As I speak, on the floor right now, there is a school shooting in Santa Clara[sic], California," said Blumenthal. "How can we turn the other way? How can we refuse to see that shooting in real time demanding our attention, requiring our action?"