esquire.com – It was an altogether remarkable night in the United States Senate for those of us who first learned our civics from the Hollywood movies. (“Half of official Washington is here to see democracy’s finest show–the filibuster. The right to talk your head off!” Mister, we could use a man like H.V. Kaltenborn again.) In the wake of the slaughter in Orlando, Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut clearly had had enough of the cowardly temporizing of his colleagues in the majority regarding this country’s insane attachment to its firearms fetish. So he grabbed the floor and held it deep into the night, declaring victory after 15 hours.